News

Sisters dedicate lives to helping those in need

By Nancy Barthel
Compass Correspondent

	LOVING CARE: Sr. Mary Irmina Bula and Sr. Mary Edmund Antoniewicz with Melinda, one of the two adults they care for at their foster home in Two Rivers. (Rick Evans photo)
	S p e c i a l   S e c t i o n: Sisters' Jubilees 2007 • Photos of Jubilarians & message from Bishop (large file) • Other Sisters' Jubilees 2007 articles Only in the Print Edition ... Articles found only in the special section of the May 4, 2007 Compass print edition: • Green Bay Diocese to honor 44 women     in religious life • Sisters have prepared others to follow     them in ministry • Jubilarians reflect on the joys of the     vowed life • Sisters say they are grateful for being able     to minister • Sisters say they are eagerly anticipating     what God will send • Subscribe to print edition

TWO RIVERS -- Seven-year-old Christopher sits in his wheelchair, affectionately touching Sr. Irmina Bula as she eats lunch. She responds by nuzzling him and encouraging him with a big smile and lots of love and patience as he "jabbers."

Sr. Irmina, who for 66 years has been a Sister of St. Joseph of the Third Order of St. Francis of Stevens Point, is one of Christopher's two mother figures. The other is Sr. Edmund Antoniewicz, a 50-year member of the same order, and one of the 44 sisters to be honored at the Diocesan Sisters Jubilee Celebration at 2 p.m. Sunday, May 6, at St. Francis Xavier Cathedral, Green Bay.

Christopher is one of two children and two adults the two sisters care for as foster parents and legal guardians in their group treatment home for the profoundly disabled.

Over the last 35 years, they've seen it all - and then some. For example, as an infant Christopher was thrown against a refrigerator and then into the living room, leaving him paralyzed on the left side of his body. The man convicted of the crime was sentenced to 10 years in prison.

When the sisters began caring for Christopher at age five months, Children's Hospital in Milwaukee told them he would never walk or speak.

But Christopher does walk - even up and down stairs - though it's a struggle, and always while wearing a protective helmet. He can feed himself and he's "babbling" a lot, including saying a couple words, the therapist at school said.

And these vivacious, optimistic sisters - now both in their 80s - pray and believe that one day lovable, bright-eyed Christopher will be adopted.

The Sisters Treatment Home at 3904 Martin Lane is on a quiet residential street in Two Rivers. The landscaped front yard includes a Mary grotto and a simple sign of greeting that says "Sisters of St. Joseph." They've been here for 23 years.

The two sisters have been good friends since Sr. Edmund rejoined the convent 50 years ago. She originally came to the convent from Milwaukee at age 18, but within weeks was homesick. So for the next 15 years she worked (including driving a cab) and dated. While working for Milwaukee County Hospital she realized that she was being called to become a sister.

"I had my own car, an excellent job," Sr. Edmund said, but "I was extremely restless."

Sr. Irmina entered the convent at age 13 and taught at St. Adalbert Parish in Milwaukee, where as a lay person Sr. Edmund occasionally attended Mass. "I remember seeing her face in the choir," Sr. Edmund said.

Their friendship began and blossomed in River Falls, and later in Wakefield, Mich., where they both were assigned. In 1971 they transferred to Holy Family Memorial in Manitowoc, where their story of caring for the most vulnerable begins.

The lives of Sr. Irmina, 81, and Sr. Edmund, 82, speak to the tradition of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Stevens Point. The community was founded in 1901 when 46 School Sisters of St. Francis of Milwaukee responded to the need to educate poor Polish immigrants. With the help of Bp. Sebastian Messmer of Green Bay (Stevens Point was then in the Green Bay Diocese), they risked everything to establish the new community.

Srs. Irmina and Edmund have followed that example.

"We started with regular foster children," said Sr. Irmina, sitting in the living room of the eight-bedroom ranch-style home with a walkout lower level leading to a grotto-like backyard garden she designed. "I love gardening. I'm a farmer's daughter," the Antigo native said.

Sr. Irmina, who was first a teacher, then a dietician, has long had a soft spot for children. But it was Sr. Edmund's work in medical records, which included taking records of abuse cases from Holy Family Memorial to the county offices, that led them to become foster parents in 1972.

First came eight weeks of training, mostly with married couples who introduced themselves in the class. "When it came to our turn, we are just the odd couple," Sr. Edmund said.

Sr. Irmina was 45 when they took on their first foster child. Their first group home was an abandoned farmhouse her father helped remodel. They were there for two years, before moving to another location and then finally to this location.

Recently, Manitowoc County recognized them for 35 years of service as foster parents. "It doesn't seem like that long because I think we enjoy it so much," Sr. Edmund said. "We have our heart in it."

In addition to Christopher, the sisters care for Chad, 15, who came to them when he was two. He was disabled at birth as a result of his mother contracting toxoplasmosis, a disease caused by a parasite.

They are also legal guardians of two special needs adults, Mary Jo, 34, and Melinda, 32. Mary Jo came to them as an infant and wasn't expected to live more than five years.

"None of our children speak," Sr. Edmund said, but "I know people who talk and don't say anything anyway."

The Sisters Treatment Home is licensed for only two adults, so they recently had to give up a young woman they had long cared for. It was traumatic for her, but luckily she still returns every other week for respite care, they said.

The sisters said they think about who will take over their ministry after them. "They think they need to do it the way that we did, but they wouldn't have to," Sr. Irmina said. "It was all new to us when we started," Sr. Edmund added. Their biggest fear is that the two adults they are guardians to will outlive them because the adjustment to a new environment would be traumatic.

They have had many children in 35 years, both with and without disabling conditions and they still hear from some of the latter, including the first child they ever took in, now an adult man living in Missouri. Sr. Irmina's relatives adopted two of their foster children, who are now in college. Their walls and bookcases are filled with photos of their foster children, some of whom have died of health problems associated with their disabilities.

"I think it's the Lord's handwork," said Sr. Irmina of their work. "Our Lord is behind it all."