My days at St. Veronica started in the 1950s. The center part of the convent was just completed. The assistant priest left a duck in the bathtub to welcome us. There were twenty five sisters here. Seven slept in the attic. The chapel was still in the older part of the convent. The community room was in the new part and reminded us of a huge ballroom. The last section of the convent wasn’t added until the 1964. The chapel was built then near the school as it stands now.
The school, was in it’s high times. There were fifty students in classes from one to eight. Four rooms of fifty for every grade. Grade one to three had half days. Everyone of my five years here we graduated two hundred students. The paper drives were yearly with as many as sixteen semis full of papers. The students were named Speedballs and Lightenrods and my class was always had Lightenrods and I remember winning, I don’t remember what was with done with the money collected but the school spirit was high! We had no gym until the new church was completed in 1957. Our teams played baseball, football, and basketball elsewhere. One year our baseball team was so good that played the public school at Briggs’ Stadium. We lost but we had fun anyway. When the gym was available our basketball teams entertained the eighth graders by making them believe they were the Harlem Globetrotters and even made us laugh as they played “like girls”. I treasure memories of all my students during my “special” five years with them.
My last days at St. Veronica started in 1984. The parish had a census. Over one hundred homes bound St. Veronica were in need of visits. About seventeen Eucharistic Ministers to the sick were trained.
Once a week or once a month Holy Communion was brought to parishioners. My office in the school and it gradually became a place where people came for food and help. St. Rose and the Capuchins were always visited. Food baskets were provided at thanksgiving, Christmas and Easter as well as monthly. Many parishioner volunteers aided with all the wrok for the needy. Our parish took over MCREST for several years. Thanksgiving was our special week. I remember one parishioner took a week of vacation to stay at St. Leonard’s with the homeless.
All my work at St. Veronica was helped by generous volunteers. I am ever grateful for all of them. Here at assisted living, I remember and am praying. God bless them.
Sr. Marcine