VITA:
Only when you drink from the river of silence shall you indeed sing. And when you have reached the mountain, then you shall begin to climb. And when the earth shall claim your limbs, then shall you truly dance.”
These words, which I quote from Gibran’s The Prophet, say something about my JOURNEY as I recorded some milestone of my life.
I was born at the home of my maternal grandparents in Toledo, Ohio, on May 6, 1928, the fourth of the ten children of Lawrence and Mary (Dudley) Toeppe. I was the first daughter, with three older and two younger brothers and four younger sisters.
Many times through the years I was asked if I were an only child, and wondered what impression I gave to make folks ask me that. And then I’d smile to myself, remembering the responsibilities that were mine as first daughter in a large family.
Honoring my two grandmothers, I was baptized Mary Margaret at the former St. Teresa Parish, Toledo, where my parents had been married when my father returned from military service in WWI.
My father’s health failed early in my life, perhaps due to his work as a paint mixer and nickel buffer, so when I was little more than a year old, our family moved to rural Fremont and later to Millersville to eke out a living during the Great Depression. We were gardeners and were able to share our produce with those less fortunate. Mom’s frugal management saw us through twelve years of deep trust in God for the necessities of life until dad’s health was restored.
I received all my elementary schooling from the Sisters of St. Francis, Tiffin. Because of their influence, I very much wanted to be a teacher, and could scarcely distinguish between being a Sister and a teacher. After graduating from the little two-room school in Millersville, I entered St. Francis Convent High School in Tiffin, where my vocation was fostered and encouraged by my parents.
I was received into the Franciscan Order on Aug. 12, 1946, professed first vows in 1948, and perpetual vows in 1951. Throughout my religious life, I kept the name Mary Laurene, in honor of my parents Lawrence and Mary, the name I received at the time of my reception into the Order.
My formal teacher training and undergrad education were received at the former Mary Manse College, Toledo, and at the College of St. Francis, Joliet, Illinois. I graduated from the College of St. Francis in 1961. I received a graduate degree in Business Administration from Notre Dame University in Indiana in 1971, took management training at Ohio University in Athens, theology courses at Fordham in New York, and pastoral studies at Loyola University in Chicago.
My years as an elementary teacher and principal, most in multiple grades, were in Ft. Jennings, Custar, Blakeslee, Reed, Bismark, North Auburn, Delphos and New Washington. These many years later, it has been a joy to be remembered and visited by former students. In 1967, in the
challenging years of renewal after Vatical II, I was appointed Directress of Novices for the Congregation. Again, being remembered and visited by those Novices, in or out of the Congregation, has been a real joy. In 1972, I began ten years of ministry for the Diocese of Toledo in its housing apostolate, both as a social services director and as a resident housing manager. From 1982-1986, I served on the General Council of the Congregation as a Community Councilor and as Coordinator of Life Development.
Besides my teaching and housing careers and years of direct ministry in the Congregation, I served as pastoral associate at St. Catherine’s, Toledo, and at St. Joseph’s, Monroeville. There was a lot of re-locating and adjusting in those years, but I was blessed in the opportunities for growth which each call presented.
In January 1994 I came home to Tiffin, where I served as assistant to the community treasurer for five-and-a-half years, and then one year as manager of communication and hospitality. The years since I have been missioned as a Minister of Prayer and Presence, with ample time for my needlework hobby and mining my memories. I especially recall narrating the Pageant in 1944 for the 75th anniversary of the founding of the Congregation, and sharing history and memories in 2004 at the dedication of the new Sacred Heart statue for the Congregation’s 135th anniversary. Significant, too, was the 1983 Franciscan Study Pilgrimage to Rome and Assisi with Sister Aquinas Makin.
Perhaps most precious was a near-death experience at the time of an auto accident in 1985, which included a beautiful white rose that I could not reach to pick at that time. Later, when I shared with Father George Koerper, chaplain at the hospital, and asked why I didn’t stay “on the mountaintop,” he said he thought I had lived for my parents who were elderly, living at St. Francis Home. After they both had died, I had the opportunity to ask father, “Now why did I live?” He told me so that I could be sitting there talking with him. That became something like a mantra for me: THIS is why I lived. Through the years you may have been the cause of my saying, “THIS is why I lived.”
I am preceded in death by my parents, my brother Larry who was killed in action in WWII, and my other hero brothers Donald, Kenneth and Victor; my sister-in-law Dorothy, Helen, Jean and Nora; brother-in-law Larry Wright, Howard Ameling, Andrew Klisz and Larry Wolfe; I am survived by my favorite brother, Raymond; wonderful sisters Dorothy Ameling, Juliana Wright, Angela Klisz, and Ursula Wolfe; sister-in-law Shirley; and nieces and nephews, all most precious to me. I am also preceded in death and survived by wonderful sisters and brothers in my Franciscan family.
My life was touched by poverty long before I knew the meaning of such a vow, by relationships that strengthened my virgin life, and by an ongoing call and response in obedience. God’s faithful love has sustained me in the agonies and ecstasies of 96 years as I write this, and will continue as I wait in joyful hope to pick my white rose and go HOME. As a favorite musical selection says, “I’m a “Goin’ Home…Mother’s there ‘specting me, Father’s waitin’ too; lots of folks gathered there, all the friends I knew…It’s not far away, jes’ close by, through an open door. I’m jes’ goin’ HOME.””
Sister Laurene was welcomed home by Sister Death on Sunday, August 11, 2024. May our sister, rest in peace.