of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary
(Helen Majkowski)
March 27, 1923 – September 13, 2003
Blessed Frances Siedliska Province
Grand Prairie, Texas
Helen Majkowski was born on March 27, 1923 in Chicago, Illinois. She had four brothers and four sisters. After finishing the eighth grade, she had delayed her education for a year to help her mother care for the daughters of her dead sister-in-law.
Helen sensed the call to religious life in the sixth grade, when she received her First Holy Communion and was confirmed. She answered Gods call on July 1, 1941. As she wrote in her biography, “I saw and knew that I do not belong to the world. God sent me to this community, so I could live for Him till I die.” She was received into the novitiate on August 2, 1942 and was given a new name: Sister Mary Alvina.
On August 2, 1944 Sister pronounced her first vows and on August 5, 1950 she professed her final vows. Sister studied at De Lourdes College in Des Plaines and earned a Bachelors Degree in Education. She began her 54-year teaching career in Chicago, Illinois, and then she went on to teach in schools in Indiana, Florida, and Texas. Sister Alvina taught at St. Thomas Aquinas School in Dallas, Texas for ten years and at Holy Family of Nazareth School in Irving, Texas for twelve years. She was an excellent teacher. The children she taught loved her dearly, and their parents appreciated her because they were comfortable knowing that their children were in the hands of a teacher, a mother, and a friend. On the teachers evaluation report, she always received the highest marks.
Sister Alvina served as the local superior at St. Thomas Aquinas Convent in Dallas and at Holy Family Convent in Irving, where she is remembered as being very kind patient, pleasant and understanding. Sister Alvina accepted each Sister as a unique individual, and did her best to make the “house” a “home.” She is remembered as a woman of God dedicated to the community in quiet, peaceful service.
In 1998, it had become obvious that Sr. Alvina’s health was declining, and she could no longer teach, so she retired to the Provincialate in Grand Prairie. She was called upon to bear the heavy cross of suffering in the form of Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases. Throughout her illness she remained calm, peaceful, and most gracious for any service rendered to her. Because of her radiant smile, she was nicknamed “Sunshine.” During the last months of her illness she was unable to speak, but she tried to respond with a smile. Everybody who knew her was aware that the joy in her face reflected the God in her heart.
Sister Alvina died peacefully in her sleep, just as she had lived her whole life in peace.
May she rest forever in the arms of Jesus, the Prince of Peace.
Digitized by S. Brendan O'Brien, CSFN
Instructor
School of Arts & Sciences
History Department
Holy Family University
9801 Frankford Avenue
Philadelphia, PA 19114
215-637-7700 x3279
srbrendan@holyfamily.edu
http://web3.holyfamily.edu/srbrendan
Last updated: February 2006