 |
|
|
Entertaining Sister of Charity Sister Marie de Lourdes Falk dies
By John Gleason
Much loved Sister Marie de Lourdes Falk, S.C.L., died on Dec. 29, 2010, at her order’s motherhouse, Ross Hall, in Leavenworth, Kan. She was 82 and had served as a Sister of Charity of Leavenworth for 63 years.
She was born Dolores Helen Falk on Feb. 15, 1928, in Fort Collins, Colo., to Harry and Marie Falk. When she was 14, the family moved to Denver where she graduated from St. Frances de Sales High School in 1945. She then attended St. Mary College in Leavenworth where she decided to answer God’s call and joined the Sisters of Charity, a community of which her older sister, Sister Owen Marie Falk, was already a member. She entered the community in 1947 and, taking the name Sister Marie de Lourdes, made her profession of vows on Feb. 15, 1949.
She received degrees in education and elementary administration and spent 30 years in the academic field, working as teacher and principal before taking a job with Denver Archdiocesan Housing Committee in 1980. She ministered 17 years at Holy Family Plaza and then three at Marian Plaza. During those years she and Sister Owen Marie were members of “the Plazettes” a group of seniors from Archdiocesan Housing residences who traveled the city performing dance numbers.
In 2000 she retired from Archdiocesan Housing and began a second ministry—again with her sister, Sister Owen Marie—as a volunteer in the oncology department at Exempla-St. Joseph Hospital in Denver. The lively duo earned a 2004 9WhoCare Award for this service, which they provided five days a week.
Sister Marie de Lourdes returned to the motherhouse in Leavenworth last November.
Her sister, Pat Falk, said Sister Marie de Lourdes was one of the most even-tempered people she ever knew, crediting that virtue to her success in her profession and popularity among the people she knew.
“Even as a child, nothing really seemed to get to her that she couldn’t make light of it,” Pat said. “She was a person who knew how to take suffering, and could do so without complaining; she was a good listener and her people skills were second to none.”
Pat Falk said her sister has been described in many ways: energetic, compassionate, a ball of fire—even crackerjack personality. All true, she said, adding that is why Sister Marie de Lourdes touched the hearts of so many.
“She enjoyed every aspect of her life and put her all into whatever she was doing at the time,” Pat Falk said. “In her volunteer job at St. Joseph’s she’d laugh and cry with the people who’d come in for treatment; she was very sensitive and compassionate to their needs.”
Sister Marie de Lourdes was also a sports fan, particularly of the Colorado Rockies and Denver Broncos. In 2007 the Denver Catholic Register interviewed her for a story about a group of Charity of Leavenworth sisters who would get together every Sunday in the “Bronco Room” located on the 11th floor of St. Joseph Hospital to cheer on their team. She said she’d been a fan for 30 years and wasn’t about to stop.
“I started to cheer for the Broncos in 1977 and I just got hooked,” she said.
Sister Marie de Lourdes is survived by sisters, Sister Owen Marie Falk, S.C.L., Leavenworth, Kan., Pat Falk and Anne Brenner, Denver; sister-in-law Sylvia Falk, Franklin Park, N.J.; nephews, nieces and friends. Interment was held Jan. 2 at Mount Olivet Cemetery on the grounds of the motherhouse in Leavenworth.
A memorial service will be held at 2 p.m. Jan. 16 at St. Francis de Sales Church, 300 S. Sherman St., Denver.
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||