Sister Geraldine Finan died in May, shortly before her 87th birthday. Sister Gerry was born in the Bronx on May 12, 1938. For 66 years, she was a member of the Society of the Helpers, a Roman Catholic religious congregation of women founded in Paris, France, in 1856. The Helpers mission was to help people of color, and Sister Gerry made that her life’s mission. 

In the mid-1960s, Sister Gerry joined a team of Helpers living in a small house amid the African American community in St. Louis. A tribute to Sister Gerry in the Helpers magazine noted that she and the other sisters had to navigate the “poverty and violence” like the residents of that St. Louis community. Sister Geraldine along with another of the St. Louis Helpers, Sister Joan Granzeier, joined Martin Luther King Jr. on his march to Selma to bring attention to the racial injustice in the U.S.

I met Sister Gerry in the 1980s when she was living with a group of Helpers in the Bronx. Along with my friends, Pat, Leslie, and Loretta, we would drive to the Bronx to have lunch with Sisters Gerry, Mary Louise, Theresa, Patricia, and Stanislaus.

Sister Gerry was a registered nurse and when we knew her, one of her jobs was working among AIDS patients in Harlem Hospital. She never spoke about the other places she had lived and what she did. She was never one to draw attention to the dangers and difficulties she had faced. In India, she worked with children whose disabilities caused their families to shun them. In Mexico, she took care of poor children with spinal cord injuries. After the genocide in Rwanda, she worked in refugee camps in Burundi. 

Sister Gerry was instrumental in welcoming a Rwandan family who came to the U.S. to attend school. These children, who lived in the Helpers’ Bronx home, witnessed the machete death of their mother in Rwanda before they were able to escape to Burundi. Coming to America was a huge adjustment for these teenagers. One graduated from college and enrolled in medical school. They considered Sister Gerry their second mom.

Despite all the suffering and violence Sister Gerry saw during her time in other countries, spending time with her was inspiring and yes, fun. She had a great sense of humor and would always be interested in what we were doing and how are families were. Sister Mary Louise had a cat named Precious. Sister Gerry, not being a cat person, would often complain about Precious, but knowing how much the cat meant to her friend, allowed the cat to stay. 

Time passed and the sisters, upon aging, opted to relocate to the Helpers home in Chicago. Our lunches ended and we all regretted not being able to spend more time with them.

Sister Gerry seems to have outlived the other sisters we knew. But we hold all of them close to our hearts. They were women who were never allowed to become priests, nonetheless did Jesus’ work without asking for any bonuses. I can’t imagine how many lives have been changed by Gerry and the other sisters that we feel privileged to have known. 

Rest in peace, Sister Gerry. We know that you now rest in heaven after a lifetime of work. You are a Helper extraordinaire. 

Top Photo courtesy of The Society of Helpers