Week 09 (May 17-23)
By Lisa Tebbe
Academy of the Sacred Heart, St. Charles (’80), Director of Alumni
The Saturday before Mother's Day, my husband, John, and I visited Calvary Cemetery, a rambling, beautiful space in North St. Louis, Missouri, operated by the Archdiocese. It is the resting site for historic figures (William Sherman, Dred Scott), notable writers (Tennessee Williams, Kate Chopin), city founders (Rene Auguste Chouteau, Alexander McNair) and the plots of many Religious orders. My mom’s family is buried there, and I enjoy time in this peaceful, park-like place. Years ago, we discovered the old RSCJ section with its crumbling stairs and smattering of tilted iron crosses embossed with names I didn’t recognize. Situated high on a hill with a commanding view, it’s a spot we like to stop and pray.
On this day, I was compelled to find the other RSCJ section I’d heard about. Calvary is huge, but as we sat on the steps, under the Sacred Heart statue, my quick Google search came up with Section 33. While we had a number, the sections are seemingly not laid out in any kind of consecutive order. After searching for a bit (and noticing how many people were actually visiting the cemetery – was it that it was Mother’s Day or the combination of time to visit loved ones and a good spot to safely social distance?) we found Section #33, next to #5, of course.
A slow drive around the triangular shaped area yielded no success, and I’d almost given up, when we noticed a large, modern stainless-steel heart sculpture on a pedestal to our right. There is nothing like it in this cemetery; it was all alone in the lush green landscape, but seemed intentionally placed. Then, looking to our left, John noticed the RSCJ headstone. We found it!
Quickly parking, we approached the headstone and saw the smaller stones set flush in the ground for individual RSCJ. Here are interred the nuns that died between 1835 and 1963 who had been transferred from St. Charles, as well as many names I was familiar with: Angela McCabe … Mathilde Mouton … Louise Callan. As we slowly walked the tidy rows, I was filled with gratitude for these women.
Then I saw Sister Anna Hoza. For many, she was a serious, gruff nun. To me, she was different. She took me under her special care when I began primary school at the Academy in St. Charles in 1971. My parents were divorced, and I may have been the only kid in school with a single mom. Sister Hoza looked after me, asked about my parents and prayed for our family. She also took interest in my mom, recognizing that this young mother of two, and a teacher herself, was working so hard to do the best for her children. I remembered how one evening after school, Sister gave mom an Infant of Prague statue, very ornate with real “clothes” that beckoned me to add it to my doll collection. That statue was in the hallway outside our bedrooms for years – a quiet symbol of love and protection.
As I stood there, all of this came washing over me – the great care I felt, the love and comfort, the sense that everything would be okay that this little nun gave me. Tears streamed down my face, and I was deeply struck by how Sister Hoza was my first Sacred Heart mother and how incredibly fortunate I was to have had that unconditional love and acceptance at such a pivotal time in my life.
And, I thought of how grateful I was to find her and this section of Sacred Heart mothers just in time for Mother’s Day, to tell them how grateful I am for their love and for “mothering” so many Children of the Sacred Heart. My heart is full.
