Sister Marcella LaKoske
1917-2009

Sister Marcella LaKoske was a poet and she gave part of her autobiography a poetic name, “Layer by Layer.” She wrote, “Life is like an onion. You peel off a layer at a time, and sometimes you cry.” As Sister Joan Sustersic said, “God has peeled back the layers of Sister Marcella’s life and allowed us to see her beauty.”

The opening paragraph of Sister Marcella’s autobiography reads, “I was born of humble Polish parents on the East side of Detroit on September 11, 1917.” Her parents were William and Julia (Kujat) LaKoske. Her father was an excellent tool and die maker, and her mother was gifted in sewing and crafts. “She was truly the heart of our family.” Marcella was the oldest of the LaKoske’s six surviving children. Before her birth, they had lost three children in infancy.

Marcella attended St. Catherine School with the IHM Sisters for her elementary years and three years of high school. She finished at St. Rose High School, from which she graduated in June 1934. Although the idea of becoming a religious had occurred to her, some time passed before she gave it serious thought. These were the years of the Great Depression, and she felt that she should work and help the family financially. Her father was ill and the death of her fifteen-year-old brother had brought great sorrow into the family.

She was twenty-four years of age when she finally decided to enter religious life. Now she had to decide which religious congregation to enter. She had been educated by the Immaculate Heart of Mary Sisters, but had two cousins in the Adrian Dominicans, Sisters Celine and Marie Joan Nemshak. After a visit with them, she made the decision for the Adrian Dominicans. She wrote, “Following the example of my dear mother, I sewed all my postulant outfits and bought what I could not make with money I had saved.” On June 11, 1942, Father Merwin Lenk, from Nativity of the Lord Parish, drove her and her mother to Adrian, where she received the postulant’s veil on June 12. When she left her home, her father said, “Go with God’s blessing; but remember that the door is always open if you decide that the religious life is not for you.”

Marcella received the habit and her religious name, Sister Ann Valerie, on December 31, 1942. During her time as a novice, the renovation of the novitiate took place. She had been given the privilege of being a sacristan for Holy Rosary Chapel, but during the renovation she was assigned the job of painting blue all the knobs on the novices’ wooden stands.

I found myself lying on my back at times to be sure I got around the entire knob so as not to mar the beautiful cream coat of paint other novices had applied. Needless to say, I saw blue knobs in my sleep.

On January 4, 1944, she and her group professed their first vows. She spent the second semester of that school year studying at Siena Heights College, then was sent to Queen of the Miraculous Medal School in Jackson, Michigan. She was there for three years and taught in the middle grades. Again, at St. Patrick in Brighton, Michigan, she taught middle grade students for a year.

In 1948 she was in Illinois where she spent seven years on the junior high level at Queen of Angels in Chicago. During that time, in August 1951, as a result of summer study, she received a bachelor’s degree from Siena Heights College (now University) in Adrian with a major in English and minors in Spanish and history. In 1955 she returned to Detroit for two years as a junior high teacher at St. Augustine School. Again in Illinois, she taught eighth grade for two years at St. Joseph in Homewood.

The next eight years were in Ohio. She was assigned as principal and superior at St. Joseph in Marblehead for a six-year term. She wrote of these years as “the most difficult, the saddest, and yet the most glorious and joyous.” The convent was small with thin walls, and the winters were very cold. “It was a lonely, desolate area to my way of thinking; quite remote in the winter, especially when Lake Erie froze over and nothing but whiteness surrounded our school and convent.” At the end of her term, she spent a year each at Blessed Sacrament in Toledo and at Sacred Heart in New Bavaria. She then returned to Michigan and taught sixth grade for three years at St. Paul in Grosse Pointe Farms.

In 1967 she began four years in Florida. These were the years of extensive changes in religious life, and “many of my cherished rules and regulations were discarded,” a time of struggle and tears for her.

After much prayer and careful consideration, I felt compelled to accept the peripheral changes. I shed my beautiful, white Dominican habit for secular clothes. Of course, my life of prayer and penance remained intact.

She taught in the middle grades for two years at St. Anastasia in Fort Pierce and spent a year at Casa Ciega in St. Petersburg as a tutor and administrative assistant. As a result of summer study, in August 1971 Siena Heights College awarded her a master’s degree in education. She took classes at the City Center for Learning, and in 1973 earned a certificate as a nurses’ aide. During her last year in Florida she lived at St. Jude Convent in St. Petersburg and served the parish as a home nurses’ aide. During the summer of 1974 she again studied at Siena Heights College and was awarded a certificate in religious education.

From 1974-76, as another layer of her life was peeled off, she was forced to leave the classroom to become a caregiver to the elderly for a time as director of activities at St. Theresa Home in Cleveland, Ohio. She was then able to return to the classroom at St. Vincent Ferrer School, also in Cincinnati. She spent the next three years in Michigan, a few months as a staff member at St. Henry Convent in Lincoln Park and two-and-a-half years as a pastoral visitor at St. Augustine in Detroit.

She returned to Florida in 1981, where she spent the last years of her ministry. She served a month as a home nurse in the Upjohn Health Care Service in Clearwater, a little more than three years as Director of Religious Education at St. Michael Parish in Port Richey, four years as a health care giver at Medical Home Services, Inc., in St. Petersburg, and two years as a home nurses’ aide, also in St. Petersburg. She wrote:

Through the Home Health Care Program of Pinellas County I took care of three motherless children, then ages two, five, and seven, whose mommy died of cancer at an early age. I did not live in, but spent many hours guiding, shaping, and helping a little girl, Lizzie Lazzara, and her two [older] brothers, Mikey and Stevie, grow up with as much love and care as I could give. During my seven years of loving service to these children I proudly watched them grow and develop as any mother or grandmother would do.

In her file was a letter from teenager Elizabeth Lazzara. Lizzie wrote in part:

I would like to thank you for taking care of me. . . . You taught me how to write, read, and even ride my bike. . . . We had a lot of fun times together playing school. . . . You made my after-school snacks and drove me home from school for a long time. . . . Because of you, those are the best days of my life.

I know you will never forget those years either. . . . I wish you a long life, and may happiness find you wherever you go. Once again, I thank you so much. You mean a lot to me. I love you. By the way, it was great seeing you again. You looked wonderful.

Her father, Brad Lazzara, was a benefactor of the Adrian Dominican Community for many years.

In October 1991 Sister Marcella retired and lived for three years in Pinellas Park. She then moved to the Rocky Creek Retirement Village in Tampa, and remained there for two years. In 1996 she returned to Adrian, and lived in Regina Residence for seven months. The state of her health made it necessary for her to move into the Maria Building in February 1997, where she remained for over twelve years, until her death on June 19, 2009.

Sister Marcella’s wake-remembrance service was held in St. Catherine Chapel on June 22. Sister Joan Sustersic, Prioress of Holy Rosary Mission Chapter, extended condolences and welcomed Sister Marcella’s two sisters, Eugenia Obrecht and Rita Candela, her nieces and nephews, and her many Dominican friends. Sister Joan summarized Sister Marcella’s life and ministry, and mentioned:

In recent years, she has suffered various falls and setbacks. Each time she came back, but she was a bit weaker. Several weeks ago she suffered a setback when she developed respiratory problems. A couple of weeks ago, she had a fall and, although no bones were broken, it took its toll. She was treated, but her ninety-one-year-old body didn’t respond as it had in the past.

Sister Marcella wrote poetry, and published three small volumes entitled “Legacy of Love.” Sister Virginia O’Reilly read aloud two of the poems, one on her vocation and one on death.

Sister Janet Stankowski had lived and worked with Sister Marcella in St. Petersburg. She said in part:

Talk about her generosity! She taught me many things. She cared for me and the plants. She had taken on a huge job—I was a lot more work than the plants. But I needed her. Later, when I was working on a master of divinity at the University of Tampa and she was in Port Richey, she would read my thesis and critique it.

She was also quite a cook. Every now and then a note would be on the table, “I made cherry cobbler. Help yourself.” Or it would be something else equally as good. She was a truly generous person.

Eugenia Obrecht, Sister Marcella’s sister remembered:

My best memory is how she was as a big sister when I was in first grade. Around Christmas the sister who was our teacher decided that the first graders were going to learn the Christmas Gospel. She sent a note to all the parents, asking them to help us. My big sister took over. She sat me on the kitchen counter, and we went over that Gospel line by line. After a while I knew that Gospel by heart. As it turned out, I was the only kid in first grade who memorized the Gospel. My mother made me a beautiful costume—a long white dress and wings—and I went out on the stage and said it. I have to thank my big sister for her care for me and her kindness to me. I’ll really miss her!

Stephanie Racz, Sister Marcella’s niece and Eugenia’s daughter, shared memories.

My dad had a twelve-acre farm. . . . We also had chickens, geese, and a pony. When she came on a home visit to us one time, we had this big, red, two-seater pony cart. I can remember her riding in the pony cart, wearing the habit with the big headgear, sitting in the cart like a princess, with the wind flapping her veil, her hands folded, and her head held high. I think she was having a wonderful time.

One time she came on a visit from Florida, where she was ministering as a surrogate mother and nanny. She was taking care of some small children, and she wasn’t used to such small ones. She loved them, but besides all the love there was a bit of exasperation because she was in charge of them from early in the morning until their father returned in the evening. One day she couldn’t find the little boy, so she asked the little girl where her brother was. The little girl said that her brother had run away. Sister dashed outside and looked for him. Finally she spotted him and caught up with him. Instead of grabbing him or scolding him, she walked beside him and said, “Where is your suitcase? Did you pack any food? Where will you sleep tonight? Did you bring your pillow?” He thought a minute, then said, “I think I better go back home.” Those questions in that kind, gentle tone fixed everything.

John Crepeau, a former student and friend, sent a message. He wrote in part:

How do you sum up the feelings of admiration, friendship, and love that span fifty-five years? Sister Marcella, or Sister Ann Valerie as I first knew her at St. Augustine, Detroit, in the mid-fifties, left an indelible mark on my life. . . . I think I can say without hesitation that she will be remembered fondly as a kind, gentle, and soft spoken woman who loved her students and cared for each of us with a mother’s affection.

I have, and will cherish, every volume of her “Legacy of Love.” I read her poetry as an expression of her life’s journey. . . . Sister Marcella closed her eyes on this world on the Feast of the Sacred Heart. How fitting that she would be called on this beautiful feast, the feast of God’s love, expressed in the inexhaustible love symbolized by the heart of Jesus.

Father James Barnett of the Ashram Community on the Motherhouse Campus was the presider and homilist at Sister Marcella’s funeral on June 23. Father spoke of the readings she had chosen for this Mass, and also of the poem she wrote about her vocation and espousal to God. He reminded the assembly that the scriptures run through all of her poetry, and that she used the kind of language that St. Catherine of Siena and St. Teresa of Avila used in speaking to God.

As Father said, Sister Marcella is now in the realm of great happiness. She sees clearly—no more clouds, no more pain, no more tears.