Anna Amelia Doser / Florence McGurk
November 2, 1898 - December 18, 1992
"A time will come for singing, when all your tears are shed, when all your chains are broken, and broken hearts will mend. The deaf will hear your singing when silent tongues are freed...
Dan Schutte's hymn, selected by Sister Carmelite to open the Vesper service, set the tone for sharing cherished memories of a sister who had gained a place in hearts over the years, and who had so patiently awaited this day.
Sister Therese quoted from a letter of Sister Mary Bernadina in 1969 to Sister Mary Liguori, then secretary general, to clear up the record for social security. (She had been adopted by the McGurk family after the death of her father, a young physician, and her name was changed.) 'That is the way this weary world rotates on many errors and inconveniences. But God is good, and he will fix everything perfect in the end."
Sister Mary Damian recalled being a postulant in 1941 in Rosaryville, then recently acquired from the Spanish Dominican Fathers. Sr. M. Bernadina, newly appointed vicaress of Rosaryville, substitute novice mistress for Sr. M. Dolores who was ill, did in fact demonstrate her famous dictum, washing the sheets twice, rinsing them three times. In that as in picking strawberries, she would never ask others to do anything she herself did not do, and more.
Sister Marguerite Brou visited Sister in the hospital after her car accident. Ever determined, Sr. M. Bernadina had dutifully learned to drive in Rosaryville, but barely survived when her car stalled on the train track. She was in a full body cast, flat on her back for months. She had persuaded the nurse to carve a niche in the cast for her rosary.
Sister Rose Bowen remembered in Paulina, Sister Mary Bernadina never expected others to even approach her legendary capacity for work; all she did, and inspired others to do, was always "for the Kingdom."
Sister Lorraine Torres was inspired by chapter talks in Paulina: "encounters with Christ, and with the living God." She had tender memories from the infirmary years, quoting Sister, by then aging, ill, mostly deaf, and going blind: "We're just hanging here between heaven and earth until the good Lord calls, and there's nothing we can do about it." Sister Mary Bernadina's copy of Tanqueray, the Dominican spiritual classic, had every line underscored.
Betty Doskey recalled earlier chapter talks in Rosaryville. Later, as a young sister-student one summer at LSU with Sisters Mary Albert and Kathleen, Betty experienced Sister's great kindness. Sr. M. Bernadina had been sent to "take care" of them. "She did everything so we could study." Sister Mary David believes that Seventh Ward hospital may have been the only place where all the rags were ironed, with Sr. M. Bernadina in charge of the laundry. Her employees were given their corrections in the privacy of the morgue, to avoid embarrassment, but Sister Mary David said the atmosphere tended to inhibit them.
Sister Waldia could never forget her first mission, confiding in Sister Mary Bernadina as superior her dilemma at following the proscription against eating in front of her family while on a short trip, leaving everyone uncomfortable. A true Dominican by instinct, Sister had no hesitation in assuring the young nun that "Charity above everything" was the rule to follow.
Sister Mary Juliana was stationed in Paulina under Sr. M. Bernadina, and appreciated Sister's kindness in helping her to handle the challenge of being missioned to her own home territory,. Sr. M. Bernadina was kind to her younger brother, then in seventh grade, in a way that prepared him for life.
At the Mass of burial Dec. 21, Fr. Paul Philibert, O.P. was celebrant and Sr. M. Michael O'Shaughnessy, homilist. Fr. Vincent J. O'Connell, S.M., added a note of personal recollection. Approaching his eighty-first birthday with a lifelong dedication to securing rights for the oppressed, he acknowledged Sister's encouragement to him as a young priest in Paulina, when his life was being threatened and no one else would support him. "Don't listen to them," she had said of the voices of caution, "and don't be too scared." She was, as would be said today, "her own person," a woman with a larger vision.
