Retiring nun Sister Clement stands in front of a portrait of Nano Nagle, founder of the Order of the Presentation sisters 225 years ago.
By Tim O?Connell
On Good Friday this year, the Emerald Isle will welcome home one of its own, as a popular member of the community returns to her country of birth after thirty years of vocational service in the Hutt Valley. ?It is a very emotional time indeed,? says the softly spoken nun, misty eyed as she surveys the Oroua Street Convent house she has occupied for over twenty years. But after 30 years of teaching and vocational service at Eastbourne and at the Old St Michael?s in Taita, the 85-year-old is returning to her home town of Tuam in County Galway. While conceding that she had not planned to return to Ireland given that many of her loved ones ?were not there anymore? , Sister Clement strongly believes that there is a purpose in going home. ?That is a hard question-the Lord works in mysterious ways. "He?s called me home for whatever reason, and I have a notion of what he wants me to do-but we?ll see what it is exactly when I get there.? Sister Clement joined the Order of the Presentation Sisters in 1944, fulfilling what she says was her sole life purpose. ?I always wanted to be a nun-I didn?t want to do anything else,? she recalls. ?The main reason was so I could be sent away on the foreign missions-to places like China and such-but that was when I was much younger.? Sister Clement acknowledges a definite lack of younger people today joining the vocations in both the sisterhood as well as the priesthood. But as it is with her own affairs, she remains convinced that things are being looked after in that respect. ?It?s going through the cycle- it happens every 300 years or so but God knows what he?s doing.? The contribution of Sister Clement was celebrated on March 29 with a barbeque dinner attended by hundreds from the local community The occasion was somewhat overwhelming for Sister Clement, and will no doubt provide another happy memory for her when she touches down in Dublin on Good Friday.
