[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 79 (Thursday, May 21, 2009)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1237-E1238]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                    TRIBUTE TO SISTER HELEN DONOHOE

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. ANNA G. ESHOO

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Thursday, May 21, 2009

  Ms. ESHOO. Madam Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Sister Helen 
Donohoe who was called into eternity on Holy Saturday night, April 11, 
2009, surrounded by her beloved Sisters, the Religious of the Sacred 
Heart.
  My family was especially blessed to have Sister Helen as our dearest 
friend for decades. She was gentle, intelligent, loving, wise and holy. 
The following was read at Sister Donohoe's Memorial Mass celebrating 
her life:
  On November 30, 1918, two and a half months premature, Helen Dorothy 
Donohoe, the youngest of ten children, was born into a loving and 
faith-filled family to Patrick and Frances Brogan Donohoe in San 
Francisco, California. Her father and all her grandparents were 
immigrants from Ireland. One of her earliest memories was of the family 
gathering around a large dining room table to say the rosary, a 
devotion that her father began and which lasted her lifetime.
  When she was only four years old, her father died of leukemia, 
leaving her mother a 41 year-old widow with ten vibrant children. Helen 
reported that all her siblings were at home until she was six years 
old, when her oldest brother, Hugh, later a Bishop, entered the 
seminary. She attended St. Agnes parochial school and Notre Dame High 
School. During these years two of her older sisters became Sisters of 
Notre Dame de Namur; two brothers entered the Jesuits; other siblings 
married. When Helen was seventeen, her mother would not allow her to 
enter the Notre Dame novitiate, and her brother would not allow her to 
attend a state college, so she chose the San Francisco College for 
Women, Lone Mountain, run by the Religious of the Sacred Heart. Helen 
reported being very aware of how prayerful the nuns were. After three 
years of college, she wanted to enter religious life, but her mother 
insisted that she finish college. She even recalled being torn between 
the Notre Dame Sisters and the Religious of the Sacred Heart. The 
latter won out.
  In August of 1940, she arrived with three other candidates at 
Kenwood, Albany, New York--the novitiate of the Society of the Sacred 
Heart. Her eyes were so bad that she ended up working in the sacristy 
and the library, instead of doing needlework. On February 22, 1943, 
Helen pronounced First Vows in the Society and returned to the Academy 
in San Francisco to teach in the elementary school. In May of 1945, she 
was sent to bed for three months when doctors feared she had incipient 
tuberculosis. The life of Sister Josefa was a great help during that 
time. Afterwards, she was sent to recuperate in San Diego, Old

[[Page E1238]]

Town, where the first Religious of the Sacred Heart were forming a 
community and preparing to move to the newly founded San Diego College 
for Women, later to become the University of San Diego.
  By 1946 Helen returned to Atherton, enrolled at Stanford University, 
and began work on an M.A. in History and later changed to Economics--a 
long, arduous journey. During this time she was finally professed in 
Rome on February 9, 1949. By 1951 she received her M.A. in Economics, 
and she was assigned to Lone Mountain to teach both history and 
economics and to be junior counselor. From that year until 1967, Helen 
held a variety of positions at Lone Mountain: Professor, counselor, and 
assistant to the Dean, until she was named Assistant to the Superior, 
and later Superior.
  One of the young nuns, Mary Jane Tiernan, who arrived from the 
noviceship at El Cajon, California at that time reports: ``Dear Helen 
broke ranks and hugged me in welcome. I will never forget her and that 
warm hug in the midst of an austere scene. She was always warm and 
loving to me, the youngest in the community. Because of her I 
maintained my equilibrium in a changing world. She had a laugh, almost 
a talking giggle, when she thought someone or something was funny. I 
can still hear it. Throughout my life she was a loving presence. I do 
know that she was anxious, but she always had that ready Irish sense of 
humor despite her fears.''
  By 1975 Helen became a member of the Western Province Provincial 
Team, serving with two provincials. In this time period she took a 
sabbatical, spending a year at Oxford, England, and having exciting 
excursions in Europe. In 1985 she was Superior at the Society's 
retirement facility in Atherton, followed by two years in charge of 
hospitality at the provincial house in St. Louis. After returning West, 
Helen worked in hospital chaplaincy, and eventually for nine years as 
Director of the Oakwood Retirement Center.
  Those who knew Helen best describe her as gentle, loving, deeply 
loyal and full of life, open to possibilities, responsible, but light. 
As one friend said, ``Helen was an absolute delight; she was full of 
fun and stories. She evoked many good laughs.'' One of her great gifts 
was that of hospitality in a variety of roles. People felt loved and 
cared for when Helen was around. Her close friend Sister Be Mardel, 
said, ``Helen was physically fearful--terrified of being on the edge of 
a precipice, wary of heights and speed and winding mountain roads. She 
was, however, steadfast. One could always count on her. She was always 
ready to help, to support, to listen, and always ready to laugh at 
herself. A few years ago, Helen said to me, `You know, I'm ready for 
anything,' and she added, `I've had a big grace.' And, indeed, she did, 
and that deep peace and calm stayed with her right up to the end.''
  In 2004 Helen moved to Oakwood, where, surrounded by her Sisters, she 
died peacefully on Holy Saturday night, April 11, 2009. Mary Jane 
Tiernan wrote, ``When I heard that Helen had gone to God, I knelt down 
in my house and prayed for her and to her. What joy and love she 
nurtured me with during the years. I know she now enjoys life to the 
fullest with a shy smile and a twinkle in her eyes.''
  Madam Speaker, I ask that the entire House of Representatives join me 
in extending our sympathy to the Religious of the Sacred Heart and the 
Donohoe family. Heaven is enhanced with Sister Helen's presence. She 
left our world better for how she lived her life, for all those she 
educated, and for her countless acts of love.

                          ____________________