She always did a prayer before each meal and one before going to bed at night, but Sister Susan Keough’s life was a testament that nuns can be fun.
“My family was quite religious, but my Great-Aunt Susan made nuns look cool. She was happy, laid-back, and quite funny. I remember her humorous stories about my Dad and uncles growing up. One of my favourite characteristics was that she did not push religion on others,” said Megan Keough.
“She was a woman who always believed in fairness and kindness. When my father would drop off a package, she would always pay him back with apples or something special she had.”
It went against the grain to leave the tight-knit community of Plate Cove, N.L., but Sister Susan, who was one of seven children, was not afraid to live the adventurous and brave life she wanted.
Her faith took her as far as Boston, working with the sisters, before moving to Nova Scotia.
She entered the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Martha in 1951 and pronounced her first vows on August 15, 1953. Her perpetual profession of vows took place four years later, on the same day in August.
“I was in Grade 10 when I went on a trip to Antigonish, and my mother let my aunt know we were coming. I had only seen her a few times in passing and always with my father, so I was nervous. My aunt picked my sister, cousin, and myself up at university and brought us to her home,” remembered Keough.
“All the nuns we met knew who we were because my aunt was so excited about her great-nieces. After we went to the cafeteria for lunch and everyone had soup and sandwiches except for us. The nuns had specially made pizza, so we did not have to eat ‘old people food,’ said my aunt. It still makes me laugh!”
Sister Susan left her niece with a final parting gift – a coloured praying girl statue and red rosary beads.
“At the end of my Grade 10 trip, I did not think much, at that time, of the gift Sister Susan gave me. But those rosary beads mean so much now, especially since she passed. Each time I hold the rosary, they make me smile because I can picture her waving and glad to see me. They not only connect me to my faith but to my family.
“And much like my aunt, who left her small-town roots, little did I know I would end up teaching somewhere else in a Catholic-based school looking at that statue and the rosary beads every day.”
In the 67th year of her religious life, Sister Susan passed on May 5, at age 93. She now “rejoices in the arms of her Saviour.”
