Sister Lois Mary Rochon
1934-2009
“When it came to being involved in mission and ministry, Sister Lois Mary was like the energizer rabbit—she kept going and going and going.” This is how Sister Judith Rimbey, a member of the General Council, described Sister Lois Mary Rochon. She called Sister Lois “an inspiration.” “No matter what cross she was given to bear, she never gave up.” That was, indeed, an apt description of Sister Lois Mary, who was a familiar sight on campus, flitting hither and yon in her Amigo. She was not a fixture in her Amigo; she could walk short distances.
Sister Lois Mary’s parents were Frank and Louise (Christensen) Rochon. Frank Rochon came from French and German ancestry, and grew up in Fowler, Michigan. His father had been a blacksmith, and he took pride in pointing out the smithy when he drove the family to Fowler to visit relatives. He, however, supported his family as a truck driver. Louise Christensen was also from Michigan, from a little town called Moran. She was of Norwegian and German ancestry.
In her autobiography Sister Lois Mary wrote, “It was the skillful hands of my German grandmother [Christensen] that brought me into this world.” She was born on April 29, 1934, in Lansing, Michigan, where her parents had settled after their marriage, and baptized Mary Louise. Her sister Magdalen, called Peggy, was three years older, and her brother George was two years younger.
She wrote that her grandmother, who managed a resort in Northern Michigan, seemed like a “wonder woman” to her. The resort was not far from Lake Michigan, where the family often visited. Sister wrote:
Those summers were filled with memories of home-made ice cream, Fourth of July celebrations, catching frogs and worms, swimming and fishing, endless fun with countless aunts, uncles, cousins. . . . I think this gives you some idea of my happy childhood.
Louise Rochon was a very religious woman. She was Mary Louise’s spiritual guide throughout her childhood. She often spoke to Mary Louise about the religious life. Mary Louise knew that her mother hoped that she would some day become a religious sister, and she resisted. “I had so many plans, so many ideas about what I wanted to do and become, and none of these included becoming a nun or a teacher.”
The Rochons belonged to Resurrection Parish in Lansing, and their children attended the parish school, taught by the Adrian Dominican Sisters. During her senior year Mary Louise “wrestled with the Lord, like the prophet of old,” but she suddenly received “an extraordinary grace,” and religious life began to strongly attract her. On June 22, 1952, shortly after graduation from high school, she fulfilled her mother’s hopes and became a postulant in Adrian.
She received the habit and her religious name on December 30, 1952, and professed her first vows on December 31, 1953. Almost immediately she left Adrian for Detroit, where she taught primary children at St. Gabriel School. In 1955 she was changed to Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary in Cleveland, Ohio. In her second year there she returned to Lansing for the funeral of her father and was a consolation to her mother and siblings. In her eight years at Nativity, she taught at first in the primary grades, then in the middle grades. From that time on all of her teaching ministry involved primary children. She had been studying at Siena Heights College (now University) in Adrian, and earned a bachelor’s degree that was awarded her in July 1960, with a major in history and minors in English and Latin.
In 1963 she taught for three years at Our Lady Queen of All Saints in Fraser, Michigan, then in 1966 was transferred to Sacred Heart in New Bavaria, Ohio. She was brought back to Michigan in 1968, to teach for a year at St. Basil in East Detroit, where she was elected convent representative. She wrote of this assignment as “a happy and exciting year.”
She was then asked by the provincial to go to St. Jude in Detroit as superior. She did so, but within a few months the title was changed to co-ordinator. In 1967 she had been awarded a certificate in theology from Siena Heights College, so after a year of teaching, she organized a religious education program at St. Jude and served for a year, after which she served for two years as religious education coordinator at her home parish, Resurrection in Lansing. She returned to teaching in 1973, this time in high school, at Lansing Central Catholic High School, where she ministered for two years.
In 1975 she began twenty-one years in California. For four years she served as religious education coordinator at Holy Cross in Santa Cruz and for a year at St. Mary in Los Gatos. In 1976 Seattle University in Seattle, Washington, awarded her a master’s degree in religious education as a result of summer study. During the 1980s she served for a year at St. Ambrose in Berkeley as parish assistant, a year at St. Mary Hospital and Medical Center in San Francisco as a student and in charge of pastoral care, in pastoral care at Providence Hospital in Oakland for four years, and at St. Rose Hospital in Hayward for a year. She then taught kindergarten for a year at Sacred Heart in Hollister, and served as parish secretary for two years at Holy Cross in Santa Cruz.
The 1990s saw her as chaplain at Mercy Retirement Center in Oakland for three years, as a student at Santa Clara University for a year, as a chaplain for a few months at O’Connor’s Hospital in San Jose, and living for a few months in a private residence, then as a full-time student at the University of California in Berkeley. Beginning with 1996 she served as a social service therapist at St. Rose Dominican Hospital in Henderson, Nevada, for three years, then she returned to Adrian as chaplain to the sisters at the Dominican Life Center for a year-and-a-half. In 2001 she again served in California for a year as an addiction counselor at St. Mary Regional Medical Center in Apple Valley. In the words of Sister Jo Gaugier:
Most of these changes of ministry came about due to circumstances beyond her control, one being on-going encounters with health issues. . . . She was determined to find a way to stay in active ministry, to have a job, and to give it her best self. During the years in California she also lived near her mother and sister, who had moved there. She was with her mom through her sister Peggy’s untimely and rather sudden death, and then was there for her mom’s last days [her mother died in 1995].
Sister Lois Mary returned to Adrian in 2002, and volunteered her services as a pastoral care associate, as a receptionist, and in the literacy center. God took her to eternity on December 15, 2009.
A wake-remembrance service was held for Sister Lois Mary in St. Catherine Chapel on December 20. Sister Mary Ellen Youngblood, Prioress of Adrian Crossroads Mission Chapter, was ill, so Sister Jo Gaugier, Prioress of Holy Rosary Mission Chapter, conducted the service. Sister Lois Mary’s brother George and his wife Ann were present, as well as several cousins, and her many Dominican friends. Sister Jo extended sympathy, and summarized Sister Lois Mary’s life and ministry. She also spoke of Sister Lois Mary’s last years at the Motherhouse.
Those who lived with her, and near her, witnessed a woman who prayed, often with the Scriptures open, and loved to pray together with others. She was faithful to an annual retreat, and had made a directed retreat two weeks before this final illness. . . . It was hard for her to give up receptionist duties here on campus, which she stayed with even when it was very difficult to lift the phone; even lifting a fork had become difficult. She was unwavering in her desire to be in ministry, and to visit the land of St. Dominic on a Fanjeaux retreat.
Less than two weeks ago Sister Lois was taken to the hospital with a stroke. She returned to Maria only to suffer a severe setback that sent her back to the hospital where she went peacefully into life eternal.
Sister Judith Rimbey, a member of the General Council had lived with Sister Lois in California.
She had been working at O’Connor’s Hospital in San Jose and was caring for her mother, who was a resident of the skilled nursing center sponsored by the Little Sisters of the Poor in San Francisco. Sister Lois moved to San Francisco to be closer to her mother.
Though she suffered and was in pain for a lot of years, she never complained and, more notably, she never excused herself from the responsibilities of community or mission. When we were in California, she had her cook night, prepared prayer, did her laundry, and whatever else she was able to do, just like the rest of us.
Sister Victoria Dalesandro said in part:
When I ministered with her at St. Rose Dominican Hospital in Henderson, Nevada, I was impressed with her spirit of hospitality and the simplicity of her life style. I was inspired by her prayerfulness, her devotion to the Blessed Mother, and her spirit of poverty.
When we lived together in Apple Valley, I often saw her outside walking back and forth in front of our home, praying her rosary in the evening. She was very proud of being named after the Blessed Mother and always introduced herself as “Sister Lois Mary,” even though most of us called her “Lois.”
She told me that one of her reasons for moving back to the West was her desire to visit the Shrine of Our Lady of Guadalupe in Mexico City. So, on Thanksgiving Day of 2001, we traveled there.
Sister Joella Miller also had words of praise. She said in part:
Sister Lois was one of the many faces at Weber Center. You could find her at the front desk, where she would welcome you with her warm smile and delightful presence. . . . She loved dark chocolate, and you could find her at the coffee station making her wonderful hot chocolate that she loved in any season of the year. . . . She was a very willing volunteer, who could not do enough.
Sister Carleen Maly, Director of the Adrian Rea Literacy Center, also spoke. She said in part:
Two-and-a-half years ago we held a first tutor preparation workshop for the sisters on campus who had expressed a desire to be involved in our new adult literacy efforts. Thirty-one of our sisters responded, and Sister Lois was among the first to do so.
In spite of the limitations she was experiencing at that time, she expressed a great desire to tutor. As soon as she began to feel better, she started doing an individualized English program with our Iraqi Sister Maryan Khume, who was also taking English and math classes at Siena Heights University. . . . Following that, she went on to work with two other learners in between a series of illnesses and surgeries.
Sister Maryan Khume expressed her thanks.
I want to thank Sister Lois for loving to teach me, and her patience with me when I started my classes. She was always asking me about my English and math classes at Siena, and advised me to be patient, patient, patient when I couldn’t understand what was happening in class. She would say to me, “Don’t stress yourself—you will learn English. Give yourself time.” It was hard for me to believe that because I was obsessed with wanting to learn. But after a while I started to believe her. She was right.
Sister Teresa Disch, Delegate of the Sabbath Mission Group, spoke for the group. She said in part:
We know now, more than ever, how blessed we were as a Mission Group to “share faith and life” with Sister Lois Mary Rochon. . . . It was so evident that she lived each day in God’s loving presence which she, in turn, shared with all of us in her joy-filled, gentle, and compassionate friendship and committed community life as an Adrian Dominican Sister. Despite the many challenges that came her way, she always came back, and often was the first to volunteer to assist our Mission Group.
Sister Magdalena Ezoe and Sister Lois Mary were in the same “crowd.”
I was at the hospital with her in her last days there. She was conscious to the end. When I was in the hospital with her, I was eating lunch. A nurse went out to get something for me, and I sang the “Salve” before she came back. . . . By the time the nurse came back, she had passed away.
My mother had the same kind of illness that Sister Lois had. I wasn’t there when she died, and I always wondered whether she had been in pain. When I witnessed Sister Lois’s death, it was wonderful to know that a person with that illness could die so peacefully.
Father Robert Kelly, OP, celebrated Sister Lois Mary’s funeral liturgy on December 21. She was then laid to rest in the beautiful Congregational cemetery.