The Healing Journey

July 28, 2026

When “Megs,” as she was known to her family and friends, died last year at 102, she left behind a legacy that will last into eternity, a legacy that included seven children, 12 grandchildren and great-grandchildren, good works, and decades of prayers for others.

In the 1940s, long before it was fashionable for women to have careers, she went to nursing school and college and worked at several Catholic hospitals. She eventually left to raise her family and later returned to train young nurses.

She went to daily Mass, she taught Bible study, she was active in her parish, she was committed to several ministries and humanitarian causes.

“She lived her faith daily for over a hundred years and established that legacy in her own children to carry on,” her obituary said. All of us should be so well remembered.

She loved religious statues and sacramentals, and when she passed, her children spent days going through what she had collected, taking what they wanted and sharing the rest with family and friends. There were Madonnas, crucifixes, statues of saints, prayer books, rosaries, scapulars, medals, holy cards and more.

Her daughter gave Carolyn some of these treasures, and for her it was a sacred honor to receive rosaries and prayer books this saintly woman had used.

The box Megs’ daughter gave her contained hundreds of sacramentals. She said a silent prayer as she went through them: “Lord, help us to find a home for these religious items, someone who will cherish them, pray with them and continue the legacy of the woman who owned them … and may they continue to give you glory.”

That prayer was answered quickly enough. She gathered everything together and put them in a large box for the Missionaries of Charity, who always put religious items to good use.

St. Teresa of Calcutta’s sisters will share them with the people they serve, whether they’re children in catechism classes or families who can’t afford to buy statues and prayer books.

Meg’s love for Jesus and the Blessed Mother will bear fruit long after she’s gone. Someone will be using her rosaries, someone will be saying the prayers on her holy cards, and someone will put a statue of Our Lady in a place of honor.
©J Pisani

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