Obituary Notice
Sister Agnès Gervais
Agnès-de-la-Trinité
entered Eternal Life on October 22, 2010
at age 78 years
in religious life 59 years
+ 2654
I will not be afraid, for you are close beside me,
guarding, guiding all the way.
(Ps. 23: 4b)
The Church of the Sacred Heart in Baie Shawinigan, Québec, received Marie Jacqueline Agnès at the baptismal font on December 1, 1931, the very day of her birth. She was the third child and eldest daughter of the marriage of Edgar Gervais and Léda Matteau. Ten other “Gervais” children would follow for a family of 7 girls and 6 boys.
Young Agnès began her primary schooling with the Daughters of Jesus at Christ the King parish in Shawinigan, then continued her studies with the Sisters of the Holy Names of Jesus and Mary in Beauharnois. Her small stature merited the nickname, “the little one”. Her father was foreman in an aluminum factory in Shawinigan.
How did she come to know the Grey Nuns? It would seem that a friend shared with her a calling to religious life and her attraction for the Grey Nuns. But, it is following the accidental death of her young brother at the age of 14, when she herself was only 17, that her decision took shape and she entered our Mother House Novitiate on August 1, 1949.
Immediately after her profession in 1951, under the name of Sister Agnè-de-la-Trinité, she received an assignment for the United States. While completing her Teachers’ College trai-ning through summer sessions, a diploma granted with high honours, she began her teaching career in our schools in Lowell until 1962. Then, she went to Ogdensburg, NY for 6 years. Her services were then requested for our mission in the state of Louisiana, always as a classroom teacher, from 1968 to 1979. In 1980, she spent a year in the Ottawa region and took advantage of courses at St. Paul University to obtain certification in pastoral care under the sponsorship of the Catholic Health Association of Canada. Thus, a new field opened up for her, one that would bring her many consolations. Once she returned to the United States, she also participated in a ten-week course sponsored by the Archdiocese of Boston’s Collaborative Training Institute.
From 1981 to 1986, then again from 1987 to 1992, and finally from 1996 until her retirement in 2008, she visited the residents at D’Youville Senior Care Center in Lowell, offering a sympathetic ear to both residents and staff, journeying with those near to death, making herself available to their families. Simply told, bringing a presence filled with compassion to hold the pain and the joy of others.
One will notice certain breaks in the dates enumerated above. Twice, Sister Agnès set aside her work in pastoral care to journey with a candidate to religious life, first in the postulate, then in the novitiate. Also, when a new mission was opened in Newark, NJ in 1995, she accepted to go as librarian at St. Michael School. The principal of that school praised Sister Agnès’ availability to render any service that was requested of her. Nonetheless, she returned to her ministry of choice among the elderly in Lowell the following year.
Sister Agnès was also called to serve in community leadership three times: at Our Lady of the Sacred Heart Convent in Church Point, Louisiana, from 1974 to 1979; at D’Youville Residence for the Sisters serving at D’Youville Senior Care Center, from 1987 to 1992; then at St. Joseph Residence in Lowell from 2002 to 2008. She was also Provincial Councilor from 1988 to 1994.
In her latter years at D’Youville Senior Care Center, Sister Agnès dedicated several hours each week to the Specialized Care Dementia Unit. She had a gift for approaching these persons to bring them a moment of joy. For some time, after a directed retreat, Sister Agnès had found great consolation in praying Psalm 23 and contemplating an image of the Good Shepherd. She sought to give flesh to this reality in her life and take it as her model when ministering in pastoral care.
In the early 90’s, a diagnosis of breast cancer required chemotherapy treatments. The side effects of these interventions would follow her to the end of her days. Although she enjoyed several years of remission allowing her to continue her ministry, the subtle progress of the disease never truly left her. Gradually, Sister Agnès found that her strength was dimini-shing and her health declining. Pulmonary and cardiac congestion forced several hospitalizations, followed by time spent in rehabilitation. As she became more aware of the seriousness of her condition, Sister Agnès accepted hospice care. But, her Shepherd awaited her. In less than two days after her return among her companions at St. Joseph Residence, he came to claim his lamb as the sun rose on October 22, 2010.
The Liturgy of the Word at the Sunday Eucharist on the day of Sister Agnès’ wake brought us words from Saint Paul which Sister Agnès could easily have repeated as she offered herself to her Creator: “As for me, my life is already being poured out as a libation, and the time has come for me to be gone. I have fought the good fight to the end; I have run the race to the finish; I have kept the faith; all there is to come now is the crown of righteousness.” (2 Tim. 4: 6 – 8)
For her funeral, several members of the D’Youville Senior Care staff sought to participate actively in the liturgical cele-bration as a final gesture of affection for this little sister whose motorized wheelchair would no longer be heard in the hallways, nor her friendly greetings as she passed by.
