Sister Dorothy D’Haene
1924-2007
On her annals form for 1991-92, Sister Dorothy D’Haene wrote, “I thank God for my sisters—my Adrian Dominican Sisters.”
God gave her the great privilege of dying during the 2007 Christmas season. She went to eternity on December 27. She was the last surviving member of her immediate family, and no doubt there was joy in heaven when they greeted each other. At the wake Sister Mary Sue Kennedy, Sister Dorothy’s Chapter Prioress, said:
On Sunday evening, December 23, I received a call from the nursing supervisor that Sister Dorothy was not doing so well. I came to visit with her on Christmas Eve morning. It was quite obvious to me that her condition had deteriorated considerably since I had seen her a short time before. In spite of how she was feeling, she was up and dressed and sitting in her chair. She told me that … she was looking forward to seeing her God, her parents and brothers, and her friends who had gone before her.
In her years on the Motherhouse campus, her Dominican sisters and her family saw Sister Dorothy as a very slim, fragile person with an engaging smile. Many of the sisters were a bit surprised when they heard Sister Mary Sue say that at one time Sister Dorothy had been “plump, as round as she was tall.” She had learned this from Sister Shirley Smith, one of Sister Dorothy’s close friends.
Sister Dorothy was the daughter of Nobyn and Dorothy (Odette) D’Haene. She was born in Detroit on August 30, 1924, of Belgian and French ancestry. Two boys followed her into the family, Nobyn and Henry.
The D’Haenes lived in St. Ambrose Parish, and their children met the Adrian Dominican Sisters when they attended St. Ambrose Grade School, and progressed to St. Ambrose High School. Dorothy graduated in 1942. She was attracted to religious life, but realized that her help was needed with family finances. She, therefore, found a secretarial job and worked for several years.
By 1949 Dorothy felt free to follow her desire to serve God as a Dominican Sister. On February 2, twenty-four years of age, she arrived in Adrian, Michigan, and accepted the postulant’s veil. She received the habit and her religious name (Sister Henry Francis) six months later, on August 4, which was at that time the Feast of St. Dominic. After a year in the novitiate, she professed her first vows on August 5, 1950.
Almost immediately she was on the train for California, where she taught primary children at St. Louis Bertrand School in Oakland for six years. There she and Sister Eileen Souva became lifelong friends. They were partners for cooking, and neither of them was much of a cook. They, however, studied cookbooks and managed to concoct passable meals. They learned to make tasty rice pudding; and each time it was their turn to cook, the sisters requested that delicious rice pudding. They also went on vacations and made retreats together.
During the summers Sister Dorothy studied at Siena Heights College (now University) in Adrian, and in 1956 she received a Bachelor’s Degree with a major in English and minors in history and Latin. That same year she was transferred to Little Flower School in Hollywood, Florida, to teach middle grade students, and later primary children. There she spent two-and-a half years.
At the end of the first semester of the 1958-59 school year, she traveled to the Bahamas, where she taught business subjects, English, and religion at Aquinas College in Nassau for two-and-a-half years. It was there that she and Sister Shirley Smith met and became friends. She returned to the United States in 1961, and spent two years at St. Thomas Aquinas High School in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, as a teacher of English and religion. Sister Thomas James Burns also taught there during that time. At the wake, she said:
We were in the same crowd. She always had a smile, but she was also a very private person.
I had the experience of living with her in what at that time everybody referred to as the “upstairs, downstairs house” in Fort Lauderdale. There are stories galore about that. She taught English in the high school and I taught social studies in the high school, so we lived in the “upstairs house.” There wasn’t much room up there, so we shared a bedroom. Because of the lack of space, there wasn’t room for us both to get out of bed at the same time. The presence of the stands prevented it. So we moved the stands out into the hall.
One of the delights of living there was that somehow on Saturday mornings we managed to get together in either the chapel or laundry with the sisters in the “downstairs house” to share experiences. So I knew her in a very unusual and unique way.
During the summers Sister Dorothy studied at Florida State University in Tallahassee, Florida, and in August 1963 the university awarded her a Master’s Degree in English.
Sister Dorothy returned to elementary school that same year, when she was appointed teaching principal at St. Mary School in Rome, Georgia. There she taught on the junior high level. In 1966 she was transferred to St. Rose of Lima in Miami Shores, Florida, where she taught for two years, first grade at first, then in the middle grades.
In 1968 she was brought back to the Midwest, and spent twenty years in Michigan. These years began as a primary teacher at St. Margaret School in St. Clair Shores for a year. She then spent a year and a semester as an English teacher at Siena Heights College. The next year broke her teaching routine. In January 1971 she transferred to St. Stephen in Saginaw, where she served as school secretary.
The next four years saw her teaching for a year each at St. Sabina in Dearborn Heights, Maurice Olk Primary School in Flint, St. Thomas Aquinas in East Lansing, and St. Michael in Grand Ledge. Then again she served as a secretary, this time for two years at Immaculate Conception Provincial House in Detroit.
Sister Nancyann Turner, who was a member of the Immaculate Conception Provincial Team at that time, sent an email message that was read at the wake. She wrote in part, “She loved the work and was a great helper—cheerful and professional and very willing to do whatever needed doing.”
Sister Dorothy returned to the classroom for five years at Our Lady of Sorrows in Farmington, then transferred to St. Paul in Grosse Pointe Farms for five years. During these years, she and her brothers lost both parents—her mother in 1983 and her father in 1986.
In 1988 she was once again in California at St. Theresa School in Palm Springs as a resource teacher. After a year, she spent six years at St. Catherine of Alexandria School in Riverside. She lived with Franciscan Sisters, at first in a convent, then in an apartment. Again she taught in the primary grades, but part-time because of failing health, and also assisted in the school library. It was during these years that she once more knew sorrow, and became the last surviving member of her immediate family. Her brother Henry died in 1992, and her brother Nobyn in 1994.
On her annals form for 1991-92 she wrote:
My ministry of teaching little children has affirmed my religious commitment to them, to the Church, and to the world. I am helping to prepare these children for their future responsibilities. As adults, they must be able to “contribute effectively to the welfare of the world … and to work for the extension of the Kingdom of God.”(Quote taken from “The Declaration on Christian Education” from the Documents of Vatican II.) My ministry also affirms my commitment to my Adrian Sisters. Although I have reached the age of retirement, I am happy that I am able to contribute to our common fund.
On another annals form she wrote a moving statement of her difficulty in accepting aging. At that time she belonged to the Wellspring Mission Group, and that was an issue that the group discussed during the year. She wrote:
Our reflection and discussion of aging has helped me to accept aging and to realize that there are blessings that come with age. I am learning to accept the wisdom of others, and to impart the wisdom that I have acquired.
She had become a victim of Parkinson’s disease, and it had progressed to the point that she knew it would be better for her to be in Adrian, so in 1995 she returned to Adrian and moved into a Regina apartment with three other sisters. Eventually, however, it was necessary for her to become a resident in the Maria building.
At the wake, Sister Mary Sue Kennedy said:
During her early years [in Adrian], she substituted on the switchboard at Madden Hall and was known and loved by the kitchen staff at Madden for her kind and considerate ways. She enjoyed helping out Rose Wilson, a General Council secretary, in a volunteer capacity … She also became involved in the Red Hat Society (a group who went out to dinner once a month), and in the Parkinson Support Group.
Sister Dorothy volunteered her help at Weber Center, greeting and checking in guests, and also belonged to the Spiritual Life Committee. She became the representative of that committee on the Resident Advisory Council. Her enjoyment of serving in these groups gave her a sense of truly belonging to the Dominican Life Center.
During the General Chapter of 1998 she was a participant/worker, and she wrote on her annals form, “As I observed the deliberations, I felt strongly that the Holy Spirit was there.”
She took to heart the involvement in bettering the environment. Discarding unnecessary things and keeping only what was necessary became a way of life for her, as well as recycling paper, cans, and anything else that could be recycled.
Sister Dorothy’s wake-remembrance service was held on December 30 in St. Catherine Chapel. Sister Mary Sue Kennedy, Prioress of the Adrian Crossroads Mission Chapter, opened the service and welcomed those present: her nephew David and his wife Trish, several cousins, and many Dominican friends. Her nephew Michael and niece Nancy were unable to attend.
Sister Mary Sue summarized Sister Dorothy’s life and ministry, and spoke of her last years.
As Parkinson’s took its toll on her body, she found that her primary ministry was to be a prayer and presence in the Congregation, and she was very good at this. Osteoporosis, arthritis, and Parkinson’s very much limited what she could do. Not so long ago she suffered a broken elbow and had surgery, only to return home to break another section of her arm. Life had become very difficult, the smiles were not as frequent (although still there), and she was tired.
Trish D’Haene, wife of Sister Dorothy’s nephew David, also spoke.
I came into the D’Haene family in 1986, and it was overwhelming. Sister Dorothy’s younger brother Nobyn was my father-in-law, and he had twelve children. I had nine sisters-in-law.
Dave and I started our family. We have three sons and a daughter. She’s with me tonight, and Dave and my sons will be here tomorrow. Sister Dorothy was proud of the boys in our family, and she was proud of our three sons. It was important to her to have boys in the family to carry on the D’Haene name.
I remember Sister Dorothy as a loving, giving, happy person. She always asked what she could do for us. She always had a smile on her face. She loved her nieces and nephews, and her brother Nobyn and his wife, and was so sad when he and his wife died.
The D’Haenes were a very spiritual family. This spirituality was carried on in the families of their children. Their son Nobyn, Dave’s father, was an architect. He designed St. Gerard Church, and went there every day of his life to 6:30 Mass. If any troubles arose he always said, “Pray about it. It works for me.”
Sister Dorothy’s funeral was celebrated in St. Catherine Chapel on December 31, 2007. Father Roland Calvert, OSFS, was the celebrant and homilist.
At the age of eighty-three, Sister Dorothy had served God as a Dominican Sister for almost sixty years. Her death is a loss for the Congregation, and she will be missed by many. But there is consolation in the knowledge that her pain is ended and that she is now enjoying happiness with God and with those who preceded her into the wonders of eternity.