Franciscan Sister of Christian Charity Caritas Strodthoff, nurse practioner and newly assigned Community archivist, offers a reflection: What do Sisters do for fun?’ She also explains about an important ministry of prayer par excellence that some of our Sisters are entrusted to do.
‘Praying Sisters’ Enjoy Party
You may or may not know, each Mission and each place where our Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity live is assigned several Sisters who pray for those community members and whatever needs or requests they might have. Sisters Audrey Kolosso, Paschal Baylon Klarkoswski, Dolores Goudreau, and Jean Heppler are the Prayer Team for Holy Family Health Clinic. On Wednesday, October 5, the Health Clinic staff, Sister Anne Turba, Sr. Caritas Strodthoff, Bonnie, Jean, Ruth and Clair, treated our ‘Praying Sisters’ to a special “outing.”
Three of these Sisters reside in St. Rita’s, the skilled nursing area of the Motherhouse. For our outing, we took Sister Jean and Sister Audrey by wheelchair, Sister Dolores with her cane and Sister Paschal Baylon on her own two feet all the way over to “the other side” of Holy Family Convent to Christina Lounge where a few steps needed to be negotiated to get everyone on location for the party. We started our celebration with a delicious white and chocolate ice cream cake trimmed with white and purple frosting served on delightful Fall colored plates and napkins cut like fall leaves. Time was spent reminiscing about stories we each knew from living with one another.
Franciscan Entertainment
From here we moved on to the entertainment of the afternoon. Utilizing the TV and a DVD, we were all introduced to bowling, Wii style. (This gift came from friends at our Franciscan Sisters of Christian Charity sponsored Genesis Healthcare System, Zanesville, OH to keep us limber and laughing.)
Here we are all lined up with our character! Sister Anne demonstrated and showed each participant how to “ Push the “A” button. Now raise
it up, push “B”, bring it back and…swing it forward.” Letting go of the “B” button was the real trick. The Sisters in their wheelchairs were just as good at making strikes and gutter balls as the rest of us. Sister Dolores’s closing comments once we finished were “I could stay here all night. Playing that can be addictive!” Sister Jean agreed. Sister Dolores had kicked up her heels and “rolled that ball” for a strike on her first try!! Enjoy viewing all four Sister Pray-
ers,watching intently…doing what they were missioned to do this year: praying that the curve of the ball would swing back over a bit, that the rest of those pins would go down, that this would be a strike!!!
A thankful day was enjoyed by everyone. Now we know…even in a wheelchair, Wii can be delightful fun!! Especially with a good coach!! Next time…no more gutter balls!! We encourage you all to play WEEEEEEE!!
