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Sr. Joan Marie Sariti, MSC
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  I taught in Burbank, California and Brooklyn, New York and then studied nursing at Columbus Hospital School of Nursing in Chicago. My experiences as a surgical nurse, a pediatric nurse and staffing coordinator were very rewarding. The best part of my nursing career was taking care of sick children-many times staying up at night to be with a critically ill child.
For fifty years I served in nursing and with the closing of Columbus Hospital I had to make several changes in my ministry. For eighteen years I volunteered at Columbus-Maryville taking care of newborns addicted to cocaine. The facility closed in 2006. Currently, I volunteer at Cabrini Retreat Center in Des Plaines one day a week taking care of the chapel and doing whatever else is needed. Four days a week I volunteer at St. Joseph Hospital in the Spiritual Services Department as a Minister of Care working with Father Ted Ploplis. As I minister at St. Joseph I meet many people who tell me that their relatives knew Mother Cabrini. One patient told me that Mother Cabrini came to Garner, Illinois on horse and buggy to beg for funds for a new hospital. Mother and her companion stayed at her grandmother’s house. It was farm country and Mother Cabrini made her rounds begging from the farmers. When Cabrini left, she told the farmers she would always have a bed for them at her hospital. When I returned to the convent I looked at a map and found Garner, Illinois. Another patient told me that her sister was a Missionary Sister of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. There were eight children in the family and the mother could not care for them all so she placed them in Sacred Heart Orphanage in New Orleans. She told me that her sister was sent to Rome before the canonization of Mother Cabrini and died there. When I came home I went through the book of our deceased sisters and sure enough her name was there. She was Sister Eufemia Treme who died on July 3, 1944 in Rome. In 1984, I undertook another ministry – an outreach to the poor. I collect aluminum cans for recycling and the money obtained is sent to various missions. Through 2006, the cans yielded $46,583. The apartment where I live houses our community chapel where the sisters gather every evening for vespers and monthly for Holy Hour. We also have Mass together once a month. I love my “retirement” and as long as the Lord gives me good health and strength I will continue my ministries. My favorite motto is “ I will make the LORD my music; I will make His LOVE the key that tunes my heart to HIM and gives my life harmony.” Living up to my motto – I still attend concerts, operas, and visit museums. |
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