Alumnae Feature

Celebrating a SHM Grad’s Lifelong Committment to Service and Caring

As a member of the Sacred Heart of Mary Class of 1966, the second graduating class of the school, Patricia Schell Miely has plenty of memories, as well as her class ring, yearbook, and booklet from the school’s dedication. What she doesn’t have is the jumper she wore every day, but she does recall kneeling in gym class to show that the jumper reached the floor to signify it was the appropriate length.

One of seven siblings, Patti lived on the 800 block of North Beverly, just down the street from Saint Viator. Other than a one-year stint for a brother, she was the only one of her siblings to attend either of the schools. She sold copies of “The New World” to help pay for her tuition, which she recalls as having been around $250 per year.

During her years at Sacred Heart of Mary, she was influenced by several of the nuns and lay faculty, as well as the friends she made along the way. Among the most influential to her was her advanced biology teacher who helped Patti learn about how the human body functions, leading to a long and successful career in nursing.

“At the time, nursing and teaching were some of the popular options available to women. I always loved working with people, so it seemed like a good fit for me,” Patti said. She became a candy striper at Holy Family Hospital in Des Plaines and was working in the pathology lab before she was 16.

The religious formation and focus on ethics at Sacred Heart of Mary influenced her career as a nurse, a case manager, a hospice nurse, and even now as the President of the Valley View Hospital Foundation in Colorado. “We are a community hospital. ‘People Care’ is one of our mottos, and I believe an independent, community hospital can provide more personal care.”

It was her affinity for that type of care that led her to begin working in hospice. “In hospice, you become an advocate for that patient and their family; sometimes you become a part of the family.” She notes that doing this type of work comes from the heart and it is clear that some of that comes from the Sacred Heart of Mary experience. Patti often reads the weekly messages she receives from the Viatorian community, often connecting their message with her life-long commitment to service and caring. In addition to her years helping patients and families peacefully and comfortably accept end-of-life scenarios, fighting to keep a community hospital independent and strong, or taking phone calls from from family and friends—and their family and friends—when someone needs to ask for medical advice, Patti has also served on and chaired the Ethics Committee at the hospital. “It is important for students to be exposed to faith and ethics.”

Family and acquaintances have shaped Patti’s life. “Everyone we meet has left a mark somewhere within us.” With the volunteer activities, she keeps busy, but also enjoys traveling, skiing, swimming, hiking, and so much more.

While she has been happily transplanted to living in Colorado with her spouse of over 50 years, she does miss connections with those from her era at Sacred Heart of Mary. “We haven’t had a reunion in a long while and I would like to connect and hear where everyone is and about their lives.” She shared her email address (riece48@comcast.net) and encouraged classmates to reach out.

And in addition to the artifacts she has kept from Sacred Heart of Mary, she also has a Saint Viator item—a varsity letter from her old boyfriend. “I gave him back the sweater but I still have one of the big white letter V’s.”

So whether you are a current Saint Viator student interested in a career in nursing, a former classmate looking to connect, or an old beau with a blue sweater devoid of that varsity letter, a few minutes spent with Patti Schell Miely can be very enlightening. n

From Sacred Heart of Mary to the Little Sisters of the Poor

Mother Maria Christine laughs even as she says it: “I’ve only ever had one job.” The former Peggy Lynch, who graduated from Sacred Heart of Mary High School in 1973, reflected on her 47 years with the Little Sisters of the Poor after a Mass of Thanksgiving in March.

The community gathered at St. Theresa Parish in Palatine, Mother Christine’s home parish. They gave thanks for her leadership as provincial over the Chicago Province over the last 13 years, and wished her well on her next assignment as the local superior of the Little Sisters who serve in Indianapolis.

It was back in high school, Mother Christine says, when she first felt the calling to join the Little Sisters. Her mother had helped to start a women’s auxiliary when St. Joseph’s Home opened in 1966 in Palatine. Mother Christine and her siblings often accompanied their mother to the home, and when she turned 16 and looked for a job, she looked no further than St. Joseph’s Home, where she began as a nurse’s assistant.

“I just fell in love with the elderly,” she says. “They were just a magnet to me.”

After graduating from high school, Mother Christine left for Marquette University intending to pursue a degree in nursing, but she came home after one semester. She missed the Little Sisters and their residents too much. “I can’t say it was a discernment,” she says. “It was a leap of faith, but I just really wanted to be a Little Sister.”

Within months of returning, Mother Christine entered the community and began her years of formation. She took temporary vows in 1976, while taking classes at Marywood University in Scranton, PA.

As seen on the cover, Mother Maria Christine (far right) and other Little Sisters of the Poor, outside the Supreme Court in 2016 after suing the U.S. government over the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate.

In 1980, for her final year of formation, Mother Christine moved to the motherhouse in Brittany, France, where the order’s foundress, St. Jeanne Jugan, served the elderly poor over the final years of her life. “All Little Sisters spend their final year of formation in France,” Mother Christine says. “It’s a chance to learn the language and experience life as Jeanne Jugan did.”

Mother Christine made her perpetual vows in 1981 at the motherhouse in France, with her parents and brother traveling there to celebrate with her. Soon after she returned to this country, she headed back to Marywood University in Scranton to earn her Bachelor of Science degree in nursing. Ultimately, she would add a degree in nursing administration as well.

One of her first assignments was to serve as assistant superior at a mission home in Gallup, New Mexico. The new facility, now called Villa Guadalupe, serves the elderly poor from the nearby Navajo Reservation. “Those were very happy years,” Mother Christine says. “It’s the poorest diocese in the country, but they are beautiful people. We became really close.”

Over the next 20 years, Mother Christine would serve as superior of the Little Sisters in Lincoln Park, at St. Mary’s Home, where Cardinal Joseph Bernardin’s mother lived, in San Francisco, through the tragedies of 9/11, and in Baltimore.

Just one year after arriving in Baltimore, Mother Christine was named provincial of the Baltimore Province—which takes in nine nursing facilities across the country—before she was named provincial of the Chicago Province and its nine homes and 90 Little Sisters in 2008.

This last assignment—which was renewed three times— brought her back to her native Palatine, where it all began. She is upbeat about taking on a new role and moving to Indianapolis, however, saying it is the Lord who leads her. “He’s the God of surprises, as Pope Francis says,” Mother Christine contends.

It reminds her of her years in high school, when she was taught by the Religious of the Sacred Heart of Mary. “Those were challenging times for religious, in the late ’60s and early ’70s, but I learned from them to be open to new opportunities,” she says, “to be open-minded and open to the call.”

That openness has served her well throughout her years as a Little Sister and in leadership. “You have to be able to adapt, to change, and embrace new things,” Mother Christine says, “and have a willingness to try.”