Chapter 7 - Sister Mary Augusta's mission

GENROZT:  a gracious act that creates a joyful ache every time it is remembered

OPENING

Looking back, I realize I wrote my letter of appreciation to the nuns who've touched my life just a few weeks before 9/11. This is what I wrote ...

"Our all-boys school, Brebeuf Jesuit, was near the all-girls school St. Joseph Morrow Park. In our final year, some of us wanted to continue Latin, and a few of them wanted to take physics. So it came to pass that we crossed Bayview Avenue for one co-ed class per day.

"The ever-smiling Sister Mary Augusta was just under five feet tall. For us, she agreed to unretire for one final year of retracing Caesar's steps through Gaul and Horace's steps through a full life. And, among the 15 Latin students, I was the fortunate one to be assigned the desk immediately in front of Sister Mary Augusta's. Touching hers, in fact. To my query, she would just smile that beautiful smile of hers and insist that I already knew why."

CLOSING

My Sister Mary Augusta is buried north of Toronto in Holy Cross Cemetery, just across the way from where my parents rest. Her simple headstone reads:
                                                     Sister Mary Augusta C.S.J.
                                                             Murphy
                                                       June 29, 1980

Me, I would have added an exclamation point to her name.