12/11/2009 12:46:00 PM
Sister M. Bean
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NORFOLK — Services for Sister Margaret Mary Bean, 89, of Norfolk will be at 2 p.m. Saturday at Immaculata Monastery. The Rev. Quentin Kathol will be celebrant. Burial will be in Prospect Hill Cemetery. Visitation will be 2-4 p.m. Friday with a 7 p.m. wake service at the monastery. Home for Funerals is in charge of arrangements.
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Sister Margaret Mary describes her life as being much like the childhood game where the children sing, “in and out the window, in and out the window.” She states that she was stationed at one time or another in all the houses of the Norfolk Priory and back again.
But she also says, “Best of all, I am still here, hopefully serving the Lord and His people as a Missionary Benedictine Sister.” I remember well, feeling and saying to myself when I first came as a candidate — “This is where I belong” — I still do.
Sister Margaret Mary was born Oct. 14, 1920, in Enola. She grew up in Madison as the only girl in the family and had three brothers. This gave Sister Margaret Mary a certain perspective in life, as she became the right hand of her mother in household tasks such as cooking, cleaning, sewing, etc., and these skills came with Sister Margaret Mary to the monastic community. She stated that she was always grateful to the community for allowing her to have a further education beyond high school.
After her profession in 1943, she was sent to her home parish in Madison. She then was sent to Lynch, helping in the kitchen and then the laundry. In 1952, she returned to Norfolk and enrolled at Creighton University in preparation for a teaching career. She states, “In those days when one qualified for certification, you taught school and spent an endless series of summer schools, working further towards your degree.”
She returned to Madison in 1958, taught at St. Augustine’s in Winnebago and in Wayne at St. Mary’s. She also served at Assumption Academy and at Norfolk Catholic High School. In her teaching career, she taught every grade from one to 12.
Sister Margaret Mary was one of the pioneer Sisters of the Norfolk Priory, who was sent to the Appalachian mountain mission in Jackson, Ky., in 1972. She never forgot that ministry, which she stated, “is in my bones,” and would have gladly returned there if any opportunity had presented itself. She then served in Columbus at St. Isidore’s School and permanently moved to Norfolk in 2001, where she helped in the monastery as her condition allowed during her retirement years.
She died peacefully on Dec. 10, 2009, at Immaculata Monastery in Norfolk.
Sister Margaret Mary is survived by her brother, Gerald and his wife, Dorothy, of Fremont, many cousins, nieces and nephews and her monastic community. She was preceded in death by her parents and brothers Howard and Frances.
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