Ninety year old Boher nun recalls post-war Britain

Sister Catherine Mary Fox of the Little Sisters of the Assumption, a native of Killeenbrack, Streamstown celebrated her 90th birthday on Sunday 22nd March 2009.The day began with the holy sacrifice of the Mass at St. Brigid"s church, Boher, celebrated by her brother Fr. Christy Fox, while her sister Teresa Moran of Navan read one of the Prayers of the Faithful.Fr. Fox gave thanks for Sister Catherine"s long life of prayerful dedication. As a member of the Little Sisters of the Assumption, a large part of her life"s work was to do with caring for the sick and the poverty-striken.After Mass a large crowd of family and friends went to nearby Boher Hall for light refreshments served by her nephew Mike Fox.Amid the tea and sandwiches there were scenes of great jubilation and reminiscing about olden times.Sr. Catherine and party next paid a visit to Boher graveyard where her mother and father and her brother Tom are buried. She prayed for them all and also for her brother Michael, interred in New York and her sister Mary Jane, interred in Kilcurly, Tubber and all the faithful departed.However, while it is good to remember the dead we must also put our faith in the future so Sister Catherine then went down to the old family holding in Killeenbrack where she planted a tree to mark the occasion of her 90th birthday. Birthday celebrations continued with a meal in the Bloomfield House Hotel where her her brother and sister, nieces and nephews, grandnieces and grandnephews and a large circle of friends joined in wishing her many more years of good health and happiness.Catherine Fox was born on 22 March 1919, the first child of Michael Fox and Mary Jane Mulvany. (Her father had three children in a previous marriage but his first wife died). In 1939 as the war clouds were gathering over Europe she entered the Little Sisters of the Assumption at the tender age of nineteen. She did some of her early studies in France and then she went to Britain where she spent most of her life. She spent three years in England studying to become a State Registered Nurse (SRN), and she was professed as a nun in 1947. She went on to work in many of the major cities in England and Scotland including London, Liverpool, Newcastle, Birmingham and Edinburgh.Sister Catherine witnessed many scenes of dire poverty, disease and malnourishment in these grim post-war years. On one particular occasion she was visiting the home of a sick child when she noted that the gauze which she had left there on an earlier visit had been used to dress the windows as they could not afford curtains. Yet she insists that the dominant feeling of her life is happiness.While prayer is an essential part of her life she was not merely confined to a cloister. Indeed, while living in Edinburgh she learned to ride a Panda motorbike as it was speedy and efficient way of visiting her many charges in that city.She also travelled extensively in Africa while visiting her brother Fr. Christy Fox who was then on the Missions in Uganda. While she spent most of her life in the UK she returned to Ireland as often as possible and always dreamed of returning home.A couple of years ago her wish was granted and she now lives in retirement in Dublin. She is still hale and hearty and says that the birthday celebrations have given her a new lease of life. As her father lived to be a hundred it looks likely that we will be having another celebration in ten years time.