Sister Mary Immaculata Assenmacher, OP

1936-2018 A gray frame house with a white picket fence, flowering bushes and other plants, a cement slab on which to play basketball or to roller skate, a hill that was perfect for wintertime sledding, even an apple tree that was just right for climbing … these idyllic symbols of family life were part and parcel of how Gertrude Assenmacher and her siblings grew up. Gertrude, later to become Sister Mary Immaculata, was born on August 22, 1936, in the Highland Park (Michigan) Hospital to George and Mary (Schoeb) Assenmacher, residents of nearby Dearborn. She was the sixth

child in the family, following four boys (George, Leo, Alphonse, and Frank) and a girl (Theresa). Two years after Gertrude’s birth another brother, Bob, joined the family. Gertrude’s memories of Al, tragically, had to come largely though photos and family stories; he joined the Marines to fight in World War II when she was just five years old, and was killed on Guadalcanal the next year. She was especially close to her father, who grew up on a farm in the area and as an adult worked for the Ford family, first at the Henry Ford Estate (known as Fairlane) as a gardener and general handyman. Later, he worked at the Ford Dairy Farm and finally as a maintenance man at the Ford Motor Company warehouse. His mother died when he was very young, and he and his younger sister were cared for by an older sister. As a result, he never completed beyond a third-grade education although Sister Mary described him in an autobiographical paper as “a whiz at math, able to figure out the sums in his head before others had done them on paper.” Mary Schoeb came to the United States at the age of nineteen with her father and sister from Alsace-Lorraine, a region which today was in France but at the time was part of Germany. It was 1913, and the early rumblings of World War I were being heard. At some point she made her way to Dearborn, where she met George. The two were married in 1916. The family attended St. Alphonsus Parish, where Gertrude was taught by Adrian Dominican Sisters in both grade school and high school. She wrote in her autobiography that religion was a constant in family life, and when she was in tenth grade she wrote to Mother Gerald asking to be admitted to the Congregation. She had a cousin in the Congregation, Sister Marie Harold Assenmacher, but according to that letter, she had been inspired in her vocation by her eighth grade teacher, Sister Helen Mary Holcomb, and even more so by her own brother Frank, who had become a Maryknoll priest. Mother Gerald gave her permission, and Gertrude entered the Adrian Dominican Congregation on September 6, 1952, not long after her sixteenth birthday. While she adjusted to religious life well and continued to feel deeply called to it, she confessed in her autobiography that her first two years in the Congregation were difficult because she was very homesick; coming from such a large and closely-knit family, she was quite lonely in Adrian. She was received as a novice in August 1953 and given her religious name because her birthday fell on the Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Immediately after making first profession in August 1954, Sister Mary was sent to teach at St. Mary’s in Defiance, Ohio, where she stayed until 1962. Subsequent teaching assignments took her to St. Francis Xavier, Medina, Ohio (1962-64); St. Henry, Cleveland, Ohio (1964-69); Sacred Heart, Bad Axe, Michigan (1969-70); St. Thomas More, Nassau, Bahamas (1970-72), where she specifically had

asked to be sent because a short stay in Nassau had convinced her that she wished to be missioned there; and Our Lady Queen of Martyrs, Ft. Lauderdale, Florida (1972-73). Sister Mary completed her bachelor’s degree in English from Siena Heights College (University) in 1962 and her master’s in education, also from Siena Heights, in 1971. Her father died during her time at St. Henry’s, in 1968; her mother lived until 1981. In 1973, she was asked to return to Adrian to be the coordinator of Maria Health Care Center, where she remained until 1980. That experience marked the beginning of a change in ministry for her; after her time there ended, she asked to be trained in Clinical Pastoral Education and did her studies at Harper-Grace Hospital in Detroit. Sister Mary was certified by the National Association of Catholic Chaplains for pastoral ministry and became a chaplain at St. Rose de Lima Hospital (which in 1989 became St. Rose Dominican Hospital and today is St. Rose Dominican Hospital – Rose de Lima Campus) in Henderson, Nevada, She remained there for sixteen years. During that time, she and her compatriot on the hospital’s pastoral care team, Sister Veronica Gonthier, were both honored with the Catholic Healthcare West Philosophy in Action Award, the health care system’s highest honor, in 1993. In 1997 came a move across the country to Bardstown, Kentucky, to become a chaplain to the homebound for Caritas Home Health, followed by a similar position from 2006-07 at VNA Nazareth Homecare, also in Bardstown. “It has been a privilege to visit the people, be with them on their journey through life,” she wrote in another autobiographical piece. After ten years in Kentucky, she embarked on a new challenge: responding to the call for Sisters to undertake ministry in the Archdiocese of Keewatin-Le Pas, Manitoba, Canada. She spent four years in Manitoba, ministering in pastoral care to the homebound and people in hospitals and nursing homes. She also worked with native women on their spiritual development so that they could become leaders in the parish. “My work in ministry always seemed to prepare me for another place later on,” she wrote of her experiences, in a quote Sister Pat Dulka, Co-Chapter Prioress of the Holy Rosary Chapter, used at the remembrance for Sister Mary. “In some instances, circumstances permitted me a preview of things to come. In my earliest years, the community had entrusted me with many responsibilities. … I am aware of the generosity of the Congregation toward me. Many times I received more than I ever expected.” Sister Mary returned to Adrian in 2012 and spent the rest of her life living quietly at the Dominican Life Center. Even after memory loss struck, she still wanted to be of service; one year, she volunteered to help at the June Jubilee celebration and served as a greeter. Sister Mary died on October 6, 2018, at the age of eighty-two, and received a “green” burial in the Congregation cemetery. She had been an Adrian Dominican Sister for sixty-five years. Her funeral homily on October 11 was preached by Sister Mary Keefe, who reflected on the Gospel reading for the Mass: John 11:17-27, the story of Lazarus.

I think I am safe in saying that most, if not all here, have said what Martha and Mary said to Jesus in today’s Gospel: “Lord, if you had been here, my brother, my sister, my mother, my father, my aunt, my friend would not have died.” It does not matter how old the person is or how sick; we do not want them to leave us. Through this story of

Lazarus and his sisters we are invited to integrate the experience of the death of a loved one and our own deaths into our faith in Jesus. The community of John the evangelist, who wrote this story, are mourning the deaths of family and friends, and are fearful of their own deaths. John wants them to understand that death does not have the last word. Eternal life is not extinguished by death and Jesus is with us during the time of the deaths of our loved ones and our own deaths. We weep and mourn for our beloved dead but not in despair because Jesus, in whom we believe, is our and their resurrection and life. The life that Jesus calls us to is the ongoing participation in his life, which means that we do what Jesus did and say what Jesus said. Jesus said to Lazarus, “Come out!” He said to the people near Lazarus, “Untie the burial bands, uncover his face, and let him go!” Today Jesus says these things to us. He calls us to come out of our fears, selfishness, anger, resentments. Jesus calls us to unbind one another, to free each other from what prevents us from being the person Jesus is calling us to be. Our aunt, our sister, our friend Mary, whom we mourn today, lives in Jesus and in each of us who remember her: her gentleness, her kindness, her thoughtfulness, and most especially, her wonderful smile. Mary spent her life being Jesus for all she met. She unbound people and gave them friendship and love through her nineteen years as a teacher and thirty-five years as a pastoral minister. All of us are blessed who have had the privilege and joy of knowing her.

Center photo: Gertrude, the future Sister Mary Assenmacher, in her uniform for St. Alphonsus School, Dearborn, Michigan. Right photo: The summer before her entrance, 1952.

Left: Sister Mary with her parents. Center and right: Sister Mary Assenmacher ministering at St. Rose Dominican Hospitals, Henderson, Nevada.

Left photo: Members of the Mountain Valley Mission Group of the Mid-Atlantic Chapter, meeting at the Mexican Manhattan Restaurant in San Antonio, Texas, October 2000: seated, from left, Sisters Mary Assenmacher and Norma Dell and standing, from left: Sisters Betty Kubacki, Janice Brown (then an Associate), and Patricia Spangler. Right photo: From left, Sisters Mary Assenmacher, Mary Singer, and Joan Dwyer attend the 2002 Gathering.

Members of the 2003 Golden Jubilee Class, August Crowd, are, from left, Sisters Renee Richie, Mary Bernard Lynch, Helen Sohn, Joanne (Jodie) Screes, Patricia Johnson, Joan Zinn, Mary Assenmacher, Mary Tindel, and Bernadette Vozobule.