In Memoriam

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(1921-2017)

Sister Helen Sorich, known also as Sister John Christine, was born on September 26, 1921, in Preko, Yugoslavia. She was the second of five children born to John and Christina Sorich. Preko was also the birthplace of her parents. It is one of several small settlements on a Croatian island that makes up the Zadar Archipelago along the Dalmatian Coastline.

Two years after she was born, Sister Helen and her older sister, Elizabeth, traveled with their mother to the U.S. to join their father, who had found work and a home for them in Chicago. In her autobiography, she wrote:

In 1923 my mom, my older sister Elizabeth, who was four years old, and I, age two, left this land for America. We traveled to the United States on the Martha Washington for twenty-three days. When we landed on Ellis Island, my mom must have shown extreme bewilderment because my dad wasn’t there to meet us. As luck, or fate, would have it, a gentleman, who was on the same ship, came over and asked my mom where she was headed. When she told him Chicago, he proceeded to take us to the train headed for Chicago. What a thrilling moment it must have been for Pa and Ma and us to be re-united here in the U.S.A. What brave people our parents were to venture on to a new land.

My dad had a job in a sausage factory and we lived in the flat above the factory. It was there that another sister, Therese, and my two brothers, Nick and Tony, were born. We attended Nativity School where we received our elementary education from the Sisters of St. Joseph.

As for mom, she was always there for us. She was always there usually in the kitchen. I can’t imagine what I would have ever done, if she didn’t respond. Many is the time we hurried home in order to get the crust of her homemade bread with a bit of sugar sprinkled over it.

When I was in the seventh grade, my Pa suffered a cerebral hemorrhage in July 1935 and died. As I watched and observed the grief of my mom at the loss of her husband and our father, I realized how our God supplies His lasting love, strength, and courage. My mom exemplified that valiant woman who through this great loss raised her children.

Vigil for Sister Anne Marie (John Vianney):

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Funeral for Sister Anne Marie (John Vianney):

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Sister Joanne O’Connor, OP

(1920-2017)

Sister Joanne, baptized Helen Susan O’Connor, was born on April 5, 1920, in Chicago. She was the sixth child born to the Irish Catholic family of Daniel and Corinne (Barry) O’Connor. Her father was a graduate of the University of Notre Dame who, after serving in the army during World War I, became a real estate agent and efficiency expert. Her mother was a California native who had studied at the University of California in Berkeley and, according to Joanne, was a gifted artist and poet.

In 1922 everything changed for this young idyllic family when their mother died of pneumonia. In her autobiography, Sister Joanne described how she, her siblings and her father coped with the impact of their mother’s death.

My father’s courage in coping with the dilemma of six youngsters, for whom he had to be both parents, has always filled me with awe and respect. He attempted at first to keep us together by hiring housekeepers. However, none of these satisfied his criteria of child guardians so he decided to place us in Catholic boarding schools. When I was three, my sisters and I began this phase of our lives with [two years at St Angela Academy] in Morris, Illinois; [two years at Immaculate Conception] in Davenport, Iowa; and [two years at St. Mary Academy] in Notre Dame, Indiana. My two brothers were placed in boarding schools as close to us as possible so that my father’s visits could include all six of us. For Christmas and summer vacations, we gathered in a rented house or apartment with a housekeeper to care for us. These times together were precious hours when we learned to know each other and our father in a more normal home environment. Perhaps his dual responsibility caused my father to become quite strict and exacting in his treatment of us, so I learned early that manifestations of love and affection would be found in my siblings rather than in my father. I am certain that this has greatly influenced my life.