Sister Thoma Maynard
1911-2009

“I’ve grown happier every day since I’ve been in religious life, and I pray and thank God for the privilege of being an Adrian Dominican.” With this sentence, Sister Thoma ended the story of her life.

She was born in San Francisco, California, on September 25, 1911, to John M. and Irene Emma (Clark) Maynard, and was baptized Maxine Ethel. Her younger brother, John Clark Maynard, completed the family. They were of German, English, and Irish ancestry. She wrote that her parents met during the earthquake and fire in San Francisco. Her mother’s family lost everything, and her father was one of the rescuers. “It was a case of love at first sight,” and culminated in marriage. Obviously her parents were opposites, and complemented each other. Her father was an extrovert; her mother was an introvert. Both loved to sing and dance, however, and were often seen on the dance floor. In her interview, she said:

My dad worked for Levi Strauss as a salesman. He was very successful. While on a business trip to Washington, he met Mr. Penney who was just beginning his chain of stores throughout the country. He asked my dad if he would consider joining him in this undertaking. My dad agreed after consultation with my mother. Much moving followed.

Maxine began her education in 1917 at Waitsburg Public School in Waitsburg, Washington. When her father moved his family to Milton, Oregon, she continued at Milton Public School. In 1922 the family moved to Adrian, Michigan, where she finished her elementary education at a public school, and graduated from St. Mary School in 1925. Here she met Sister Mary Delphine Holthoefer (later Sister Amie Marie), who, she said, “guided me to my vocation.” Her high school years were spent at Adrian High School, from which she graduated in 1929.

Her desire of becoming an Adrian Dominican Sister was not supported by her family or friends. Her mother asked her to graduate from college and work for a time before she entered the Dominicans. Upon graduation from high school, she attended a college preparatory school in Washington, D.C., Miss Madeira School, for two years. After she received her certificate in June 1931, she registered at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. In her four years there, in addition to other courses, she took “classical and chiefly German tones and voice training.” Music became a big part of her life. She sang in the University choir, and was thrilled when on one occasion the choir sang with the Chicago Symphony orchestra. She was also very much involved in the student government. The University awarded her a bachelor’s degree in June 1935, with a major in philosophy/science and minors in mathematics and German.

Her mother insisted that she show that she could support herself. After she had worked for about four months, her confessor told her to set a date for entering the Dominicans and keep it. This she did. Sisters Delphine and Genevieve Weber (later Mother Genevieve) helped her with her preparations. On January 4, 1936, at the age of twenty-four, she entered the Adrian postulate.

Maxine was kept busy during her postulate and novitiate. Besides singing in the choir and helping in the kitchen and chapel, she was also a driver for Mother Mary Gerald Barry. At the wake Sister Magdalena Ezoe shared a humorous story with the assembly.

Sister Thoma told me this story about a year ago. When she was a postulant, she was driving Mother Gerald somewhere, and they passed in front of a shoe store with a big sign that read, “Thom McCann Shoes.” Mother said to her, “You are going to be ‘Thoma.’” Her father and brother were both named John, and she did ask for that name, I guess. But she got Thoma, from the Thom McCann Shoe Store name!

She received the habit and her religious name on August 17, 1936, and professed her first vows on August 23, 1937. Almost immediately she was on her way to Aquinas High School in Chicago to teach biology. This assignment lasted for four years, after which she spent three years studying at Institutum Divi Thomae in Cincinnati, Ohio. In June 1944 the Institute awarded her a master’s degree with a major in plant physiology and minors in biology, chemistry, and physics.

Within a short time she was sent to Miami, Florida, where she taught biology at Barry College (now University) for a year. Brought back to the Midwest, she again spent a year at Aquinas High School. In 1946 she began ten years in the Dominican Republic at Colegio Santo Domingo as a teacher of science and religion. There she learned the Spanish language. Sister Margaret Mary McGill was also there as a student at the University of Santo Domingo during the summers, and remembered a humorous incident. In addition to teaching, Sister Thoma also did the food shopping for the Colegio on Wednesday and Saturday mornings. During the summers, Sister Thoma attended the University of Santo Domingo, and Sister Margaret Mary was assigned to be her companion on Saturday mornings.

On my first Saturday with her, we were going to an outdoor market and garden. She had a special place where she liked to park. It was quite a trip back from the garden, and then we had to put what she had bought into the station wagon. This particular morning, we were pulling into the parking place when a police officer stopped us. He said, “You can’t go here!” She said, “But I must buy food!” He said again, “You can’t go here!” She said, “Oh, Senor, if I don’t come back with the food La Madre will (pantomiming the cutting of her throat).” This was accompanied by her gorgeous smile and personality. The officer cracked up. He laughed and laughed and said, “Follow me, Sister.” Then he led us to an even better, closer parking place. After that we never had a problem. She was a wonderful person.

When Sister Thoma left Santo Domingo, she spent six years in Detroit: two years each at Dominican High School, Rosary High School, and St. Theresa High School, as a teacher of science and math. In 1962 she was assigned to St. Agatha High School in Detroit, but spent only a month there. She became very ill and was brought back to the Motherhouse for recuperation. In 1963 she returned to St. Theresa High School for three years, then spent four years at Bishop O’Dowd High School in Oakland, California. She had been teaching and studying at the University of Wyoming in Laramie, Wyoming, during the summers, and in 1967 was certified in radiation biology.

She returned to the University of Wyoming in 1970, where she worked in the field of cancer research for four years, and also taught religious education. The next five years were spent at St. Thomas Institute (Institutum Divi Thomae) as an associate professor. There she also did cancer research. She continued working in cancer research and as an associate professor at Xavier University in Cincinnati, Ohio, for the next four years, using the magnetic pulse method. She wrote that she worked with Dr. Henry Heimlich (of the Heimlich maneuver), and that during this time she and Sister Johanna Kramer were sent to Europe to observe the cancer facilities there. In 1983 she served as animal research supervisor at S.D.I. Institute in Houston, Texas, a ministry that lasted three years.

In 1986 she left the field of cancer research, and became a parish minister at St. Paul Parish in Houston. She retired in 1987 and volunteered her time at Dominican Santa Cruz Hospital in Santa Cruz, California, serving in the Tumor Registry Department. She returned to Adrian in 1993, lived in Regina Residence, and volunteered for a year at Maria Health Care Center. For the next two years she served at the Hospice of Lenawee as a bereavement counselor. In August 1996, the state of her health made it necessary for her to become a resident in the Dominican Life Center/Maria, where death came to her almost thirteen years later, on May 2, 2009.

Sister Thoma’s wake-remembrance service was held on May 5 in St. Catherine Chapel. Present were her nephew John Maynard, several lay friends, and her many Dominican friends. Sister Joan Sustersic, Prioress of Holy Rosary Mission Chapter, opened the service and welcomed all who had assembled. She summarized Sister Thoma’s life and ministry, and spoke of her last years at Maria.

As her health declined, she could still do quite a lot. . . . Her main loves were reading, and she enjoyed listening to classical music. She loved going to the Croswell and the Adrian Symphony. In December 2007 she received word that she had a blockage. Because of her age and physical condition, surgery was not recommended. . . . Her vision was not clear and her hearing continued to decline. Sisters came and read to her. . . . To keep her comfortable, we asked that she receive the services of Hospice. . . . In her own inimitable way, she went in her own time to God.

Sister Thoma’s friend, Nancy Joynt, a former Adrian Dominican, said in part:

Sister Thoma and I go way back to the mid 60s at St. Theresa in Detroit . . . when I was known as Sister Fiat. She was always a woman ahead of her time—a brilliant scholar and researcher. With her regular doses of humor, her students developed a real appetite for chemistry and physics.

I could always count on her for wise advice. . . . We’ve remained friends these many years, albeit, over the last fifteen or twenty, the long and winding roads have led to Adrian. . . . While she was still very active, our visits found us tooling around the countryside, often to Hathaway House and the Stable for lunch or dinner. Often we exchanged phone calls to make sure we remained current in between visits. . . . I was always impressed when I came to visit, as she was always fully and impeccably dressed, a book in hand, and her classical music in the background, inviting all to her room. . . . She never missed an opportunity to introduce you to her care givers and tell you how good and kind they were to her.

Trish Risher, who works in the therapy department at Maria, remembered:

Before I shushed people to whom I was giving massages when they began to talk, but you don’t shush people who are eighty years old. When I first took her history, I said, “Oh, you’re retired.” She said, “No, I’m waiting—waiting to go to Jesus.” What that meant to me during the past five years is that waiting is an active thing, not something quiet. A couple of years ago she said to me, “I have to tell you this. I’m so in love with the Father. All my life I’ve loved the Lord, the Spirit, and Jesus, but now the Father is so real to me.” So that was the beginning of the time when we had to say the “Our Father” during the massage. Then she wanted to sing the “Our Father.” I’ll always remember the “Our Father” and how she would sing it in her amazing voice. During my time with her, she broke her wrist and fractured her foot, but she made it through that.

Sister Magdalena Ezoe said:

I lived with Sister Thoma at Dominican High School in the early 1950s. I found out that she knew a lot of German Art songs (German lieder) by Schubert and Schumann. I was delighted.  On many evenings, from 7:00 to 8:30, our recreation time, we would go to the music room and play and sing. One of the pieces Sister Thoma loved to sing was Schumann’s “Du bist wie eine Blume” with poem written by Heinrich Heine.

Lissa Perrin, who also works in the therapy department, reminisced:

I met Sister Thoma about ten years ago. Since then, it’s been my privilege to accompany her on her life’s journey. . . . The time I spent with her was the last period of her life. . . . She taught me and gave me much through our relationship. Our time together was both a time of life review, loss and decline, and also of her continuing growth and change. . . . An active person by temperament, slowing down challenged her, yet also provided her the opportunity for contemplation and a different kind of prayer life that she grew to treasure.

Noreen Froelich, who worked in Environmental Services, sent a remembrance. She wrote of herself as “a confused, twenty-year-old girl who had lost her way in life” and of the help that Sister Thoma gave her

The years passed, and with each accomplishment and change in my life I had a friend to thank for the countless prayers and encouragement. Sister Thoma contributed to my happiness in so many ways. Through the good and bad times, I had a friend. Someone who I knew was praying for me.

Reflections that Sister Thoma had written and asked to have read at her wake were then shared. She wrote of her love for her sister-companions, her love for the Congregation, and thanked God for calling her. She also asked forgiveness for any hurts or offenses given, and asked for prayers.

During the placing of the pall at Sister Thoma’s funeral liturgy on May 6, Sister Magdalena played on the piano “Du bist wie eine Blume,” from Schumann’s song cycle Myrthen, Opus 25 (1840),” in dedication to Sister Thoma. Father Roland Calvert, OSFS, was the presider and homilist at the Mass. Father said in part:

When I stopped in her room last week, she was no longer able to speak. But someone had put on a CD of classical music nearby—a good idea because nothing could have been more therapeutic. . . . I don’t remember ever visiting her when she wasn’t reading or at least had a book there. And you could be sure that she’d bring up some idea from the book and ask some questions about it. She was constantly searching, found the world of ideas stimulating.

As Father said, Sister Thoma heard the invitation from the first reading, “Arise my beloved, my beautiful one and come to me!” After much waiting, she was at last able to answer it.