Learning something new every day with Sister Ellen Enright

By Carol Hollenbeck
The U.P. Catholic

Sister Ellen Enright left the Diocese of Marquette five years ago to retire in Northlake, Ill. But for Sister Ellen, retirement doesn’t mean inactivity.

“I’m living at Casa Scalabrini Village now, a senior retirement building. There are six Loretto sisters (IBVM) who have separate apartments but a dining area where we can share meals with laity and each other,” she said. “The six sisters here are all on the same floor. The residents call it the Holy Floor. Mass is offered every day except Wednesday and Saturday. We gather with any residents that attend, and many ask us to pray for them or their loved ones. “I noticed that there are a number of people here that are very lonely. So I started a prayer shawl group every Thursday. Sister Arlene Connelly and I,  and others make shawls and scarves for people. Every week, with the six to 10 people as workers, we have several people stop to visit, to see what we’re doing,” she said.

An accident left her with a paralyzed right arm. “My aunt taught me how to knit, but I can’t do that anymore,” she explained. “Now I hold the crochet hook like a crowbar in my right hand, using my left to do all the work. I learned how to adapt. I’m very grateful to the physical therapist in Houghton. She was so sweet, but she pushed me and made me find ways to do things.”

Those who are part of the prayer shawl group pray over the blankets before they are sent out. They may go to people Sister Ellen or others know, such as a newly married couple or a newborn baby. The blankets are often customized for the recipients. “I just finished blankets for a family. He’s a lieutenant in the Navy, a graduate of Michigan Tech and stationed in Rome. The blankets are done in Navy colors,” she said.

Sister Ellen also leads a book club at Casa Scalabrini. It has about a dozen members, including Sister Marietta Brummel and Sister Mary Lou Wcislo, who both ministered in the Soo. The club gathers on the second Friday of every month. “It gets them out of their apartments,” she said. “‘Cloud Cuckoo Land’ is our book for May.”

Although she is gone from the U.P., Sister Ellen hasn’t abandoned or forgotten the friends she made here. She has been in touch with people she knew here. “There’s a continuing prayer ministry with people from the Soo, Menominee and Houghton areas. I led quite a few retreats at Marygrove, and I’ve kept in touch with some of those people. I put different things for them to reflect on, on Facebook.

“The computer is my friend,” she continued. “I can’t hold a book, but I use Kindle, and off I go. If I didn’t have the methods of communication we have now, I couldn’t stay in touch with everyone.”

Sister Ellen took final vows in November of 1971 at St. Mary’s in the Soo. But she hasn’t stopped learning, and she laughs about the changes in her life. “Father Pat (Father S. Patrick Wisneske) could not hear, so I became his hearing aid. At Houghton, Father (Larry Van Damme) never wore a watch, so I became a clock. I’m sort of an information person,” she said. Now, she has become the sisters’ computer ‘expert.’

“I try to keep going,” Sister Ellen said. “As a novice, I was told to learn something new every day. I try to do that.”