Sister Ellen Mary Ach
1929-2007
"Oh, kiddo!" This was Sister Ellen Mary's favorite phrase. Many of the sisters who knew her can imagine her saying "Oh, kiddo, I am home!" as the Congregation celebrates her entrance into eternity.
Ellen Mary came from German and Irish ancestry. She was the daughter, the only child, of Arthur Joel and Mary Ellen (Murray) Ach. Their marriage was what used to be called "a mixed marriage." Mary Ellen Murray was Catholic, but Arthur Ach was not.
Arthur Ach was originally from Madison, Wisconsin. His wife was from Bad Axe, Michigan. We are not told how they met, but after their marriage they made their home in Detroit. At first, Arthur Ach kept a store, but later he became vice president in a stock and bond company, so his family was never in want while he was alive. In her autobiography, Sister Ellen wrote, "When I was an infant, we moved into a larger home in Gesu Parish in Detroit so that the two grandmothers could live with us."
Ellen attended Gesu Elementary School with the IHM (Immaculate Heart of Mary) Sisters, whom she loved. After the death of the father and grandmothers Mary Ellen Ach went out to work, and she sent her daughter to Ladywood Boarding School in Indianapolis, Indiana, for high school. There Ellen met the Sisters of Providence, and took piano lessons in addition to the academic subjects. There, also, a desire to become a religious sister entered her heart. She spoke of this to one of the sisters, who advised her to spend her last two years of school at home with her mother, and get some dating experience. This Ellen did, and she finished her junior year and began her senior year at Little Flower High School in Royal Oak. "We had moved into a smaller home, only two blocks from Gesu Church, and Mother and I had time to really get to know each other."
Ellen met the Adrian Dominican Sisters when her mother's cousin, Sister Columbkille Murray, celebrated her Silver Jubilee, and invited Ellen and her mother to Adrian for the celebration. Ellen saw "all the happy sisters in their white habits, visiting with their families," and the thought of becoming one of them became rooted in her mind. With her mother's approval, she entered the Adrian postulate on February 2, 1948, and finished her senior high school year at St. Joseph Academy.
She worried about making her habit because she found sewing difficult; but she received help from some of the sisters. Another difficulty for her was the Latin chant and reading in the refectory, but she was also helped with that. "Mother Gerald told us that if we could dance and sing, we would be happy Dominicans. Since I enjoyed both, novitiate days were a joy."
On August 10, 1948, she received the habit and her religious name, Sister Mary Benignus. She was given this name for her Trappist Monk cousin, Brother Benignus, Sister Columbkille's brother. At the end of the required canonical novitiate year, she and her crowd professed first vows on August 11, 1949.
All of Sister Ellen Mary's teaching ministry was with primary children. Shortly after profession, she was on the train for Chicago and St. Kilian School, where she taught for nine-and-a-half years. Sister Marie Nolan shared a memory:
A few of us accompanied the superior to the train station to pick up a "little sister" from the novitiate. The "little sister"-Sister Ellen Mary, Sister Benignus in those days-was tall and quite impressive, wearing her black gloves, cloak buttoned up to her neck, and her beautiful smile. Needless to say, we were all quite crowded in the back seat of a little car.
In January 1959 Sister Ellen Mary returned to Adrian as a first grade teacher at St. Mary School. She then spent a year at St. Jude in Detroit.
Her mother died in 1959, and in 1960 Sister Ellen Mary left the Midwest. The balance of her active years were in the Southwest and West. Her Southwest ministry began in New Mexico at Queen of Heaven in Albuquerque for three years, and St. Anne in Tucumcari for two years. She wrote that the children in New Mexico were easier to teach than the "high-spirited Chicago" children. She did, however, find the hot weather in New Mexico uncomfortable. She described herself as "a large person with a heavy garb."
Since she desired a cooler climate, in 1965 she was sent to California, where she taught for four years at All Saints in Hayward, four years at St. Louis Bertrand in Oakland, and two years at St. Patrick in Larkspur. She had now been teaching large classes of small children for a little over twenty-five years. She found it necessary to visit a doctor, who advised her to have smaller classes. She described her last year of teaching as "a glorious year, with only twenty-three pupils, mostly girls."
She knew that it was time to leave the classroom, and she felt a desire to serve the poor and the elderly. In 1975 she moved to San Francisco. At the wake, Sister Mary Kathleen O'Neill told a humorous story about the search for an apartment.
I was Chapter Prioress in the West at that time… She called me and said that she couldn't continue teaching. I knew that she couldn't. She said that she needed a flat in San Francisco, and that it had to be near the center of town and near a means of transportation as she didn't drive. We met, and started looking for a flat. We started on Post Street, where there were signs in the windows, but found nothing suitable. Then we went to other places, and they weren't much better. It finally dawned on me that these were houses of ill repute, and we were meeting the madams. We finally met a policeman, and he told us to go two streets to the west, where we finally found a suitable flat. It was on the fourth floor, and it had everything she wanted. The next day, I and another sister went to the flat and cleaned and scrubbed it.
Sister Ellen Mary wrote that one day on the bus she asked God to help her find a ministry. At that very time, she looked out the window and saw a cement truck churning cement. On its side, going round and round, she read, "Find a need and fill it." She thought that was good advice. At that time, Sister Judith Rimbey, present Administrator/Counselor of the Congregation, was also ministering in San Francisco and lived near Sister Ellen Mary. At the wake Sister Judith said, "She was fearless. She would venture all over San Francisco on the bus."
Her search for a ministry began with helping to minister with the Franciscan priests in St. Anthony Dining Room. She wrote that 2,500 people came through the dining room each day, and she found plenty of work helping to feed, clothe, and care for the elderly, who lived in small apartments. She also took a geriatric course and spent two months helping in the City Geriatric Hospital. Sister Mary Kathleen shared some memories:
The prayer group that she was in helped her to make connections. A fashion house (Koret of California) would send her lots and lots of clothes at the end of every season. Someone in the Mission Group knew someone on the Board. Sister Ellen Mary would take them to the Mission Group meeting and let the sisters take some, then she'd take them to the poor and needy that she served.
On a visit to California, Sister Dorothy Worthy and her priest brother stopped to see Sister Ellen Mary. At the wake Sister Dorothy said:
I wanted to see her, and had a day with her. I wanted to see her ministry there with the down-and-out-and they were really down and out! Talk about poverty!
I wanted to take her out to dinner, and give her a big dinner. At least, I wanted to take her to Big Boy. But she wanted to take me to the soup kitchen. There was no place to sit, so I said, "We're going to Big Boy, and you're going to get a complete dinner." We had the dinner, and then she took me to see a beautiful cathedral.
Sister Catherine Olds, Prioress of Dominican West Mission Chapter, described Sister Ellen Mary's San Francisco lifestyle as "simple," and spoke of her as "one who walked among the poor."
After eight years, Sister Ellen Mary gave up her work in the dining room and began applying to Elderly Care Agencies. For the next ten years, she ministered to the elderly. Some of the agencies were also bonded and licensed for child care, and soon she was asked to help care for children. From 1993 on, child care was her only work. Sister Judith Rimbey remarked:
Sister Ellen worked for an agency that arranged for babysitting service to hotel guests. This was mostly weekend and night work. So when she received a call to see if she was available to watch the little children of parents who were on vacation in San Francisco, Sister Ellen would take her bag of toys and go off to some of the finest hotels in San Francisco. I think she loved being with the little kids again, and a few hours was just enough time.
In 1999 Sister Ellen left San Francisco and moved into Dominican Oaks in Santa Cruz, where she continued as a volunteer. She had surgery in August 2006, but was able to return to her apartment. Sister Catherine Olds shared what Sister Ellen had told her about her life at Dominican Oaks.
"Each day is a blessing and a challenge to live out our Mission Statement and Vision. . . . It is always fun to enjoy meals around the table with our Sisters at the Oaks. We joke, make each other laugh, and tell stories of time gone by. My wellness opportunity is a lovely Memorial Park across the street from where I live. I try to get out in the fresh air and have a walk each day. What a blessing!"
She was a person of outdoors, an avid walker in all seasons, a faithful caregiver to the many plants on her deck outside her apartment. . . . She loved to organize parties and celebrations.
Her health, however, was frail, and in July 2007 Sister Ellen Mary returned to Adrian and the Dominican Life Center.
Sister Mary Kathleen said:
She was interested in promoting vocations. In the time she was here, she was consulting with three young women from California, about thirty years old. . . . She did keep in close contact with them. One of them came from California to visit her mom, and stopped to visit with Sister.
Sister Rosemary Abramovich, Director of the Dominican Life Center, told a story that illustrated Sister Ellen Mary's sense of humor. "Shortly after she arrived, I went into her room and welcomed her. She looked at me and said, 'Hmmm. Abramovich. You're the one who kept my name from being first in the picture book!'"
Sister Dorothy Worthy called her "the little shepherd of San Francisco" and "a fisher of people." "She loved the Good Shepherd. I told her that the psalms had been rewritten, and I read some of them to her from a little book that I had. She just ate it up."
Sister Ellen Mary said to one of her friends:
I thought Santa Cruz was paradise during the years I lived there, but now I know that I'm at the vestibule of heaven at the Dominican Life Center. How wonderful it is to be here. Everyone takes such good care of me. I just can't believe how lucky I am!
Religious life has been exciting and fruitful for me, and I praise God and Our Mother of Perpetual Help each day for my vocation.
After two months, God took Sister Ellen Mary to eternity on September 4, 2007.
A wake-remembrance service was held for Sister Ellen Mary on September 6 in St. Catherine Chapel. Even though her last few months were spent in Adrian, she had remained a member of the Dominican West Mission Chapter. Sister Catherine Olds, her Chapter Prioress, opened the service. She extended greetings and condolences to all relatives and friends who were present, especially to Sister Ellen Mary's cousin John Palm and her special friend Sandy Schroeder. Many Dominican friends had also come to bid her farewell. She then summarized Sister Ellen's Mary's life and ministry.
Sister Ellen Mary's funeral liturgy took place on September 7. Father Roland Calvert, OSFS, was the presider and homilist. Father said in part:
In the first reading from Micah, we heard the familiar words of what is required as we stand before the Lord. There are three things: to do right, to love goodness, and to walk humbly with your God. They are words that describe the spirituality and the life of Sister Ellen Mary who gave herself in ministry to little children, the elderly, and the poor.
The reading from Revelation today assured us that those who die in the Lord are happy indeed, and "their good works will accompany them." Sister Ellen Mary has quite a wagonload of good works as she "goes home to Jesus." She receives the reward of all good and faithful servants, and we rejoice with her.