Amanda Torrey
REL 251
October 30, 2008
AN INTERVIEW WITH SR. DOROTHY
Your task is to interview a leader at the organization where you are working. Please be polite and tactful in asking questions, but try to encourage a discussion that goes beyond trite or superficial explanations.
To fulfill my “service hours” requirement, I was assigned to a tutoring program sponsored by the Sisters of Providence[1] in the heart of Humboldt Park. Humboldt Park is a depressed primarily Hispanic neighborhood in Chicago that has historically been the focus of heavy gang activity. Consequently, the children that go to the Catholic school serving this community are Hispanic and so are all 29 children from first to eighth grade that “religiously” attend this afternoon program that is efficiently run by Sr. Dorothy. She agreed to be available for my interview but wanted a copy of the questions a week in advance. When I sat down with her last Monday, she already had notes jotted in the margins of the copy I had left her.
In Latin America, they sometimes ask, “To what have you dedicated your life?” How would you answer that question? Would you call the work you do “liberating” or is there a better way to describe what you hope to accomplish through what you do?
Sr. Dorothy is a 79 year old nun, born on the day the stock market crashed, who is gifted, she says, “with radar hearing that can hear when you are talking and not working – no matter where in the building you are.” What this means is that she provides the structure and supervision for children to come to a program after school, Monday through Thursday at 3:00 sharp, have a snack, and then finish any homework they have before their parents pick them up by 5:00. Both parents in most households are working so this program fills a tremendous need in the community for so they don’t have to worry that their children have a safe place to go after school. During this time the children can complete their classroom obligations before coming home which means the family can have the evening together. Another function it serves is that many of the children have been able to bring home better grades from school than they did the previous year. This will bring them more confidence in their abilities and perhaps give them a better chance to continue their education and get a better life than their parents had.
Were there any experiences that you had as a young adult (college student?) that were very important to shaping the direction that your life has taken? How did they shape it?
For years Sr. Dorothy’s father worked at the National Biscuit plant in Missouri. We now know National Biscuit by its present name, Nabisco and his job was making animal crackers. When they laid him off he went into business with a friend making stilts for kids before following better opportunities for work in Chicago. In fact, she and her seven brothers and sisters moved into an apartment not far from the convent in which she now lives.
While growing up, the children attended school taught by the Sisters of Providence and she was always impressed with how happy her teachers were. When she was an adolescent, her view of being a nun was that it entailed a demanding life style which needed an enormous commitment. She was not immediately enticed by this option, but since there weren’t many career choices for women after WWII, both she and her older sister eventually joined the order: her older sister first, and she following a year and half later. Ultimately she decided she could sincerely be happy with the Sisters of Providence – even if it meant she’d probably never see her parents again, until they died.
Her parents’ move from Missouri to Chicago prepared her to better empathize for families that are displaced. It was important, though, to emphasize that her family was white and did not “suffer“ the same dangers as many Non-white families have when they move here.
This is perhaps why before we even sat down to talk, she began a practical discussion about how important it is to know the dangers around one’s own environment. “You simply don’t walk down the street alone especially after dark. Also, you don’t put your purse on the seat next to you in the car. If you do, someone can smash your windows and run off with your purse while you’re stopped at a light. Our country is full by fear. That’s why there’s so much racism -- because we are not comfortable with the unfamiliar.” I couldn’t argue with any of that. I asked her then if she thought there was safety in community and solidarity. She was reticent to answer, basically because that seemed more like a theological question and she was quick to tell me she was no theologian. “You have to understand that I joined the convent when I was 18 and started teaching when I was 20. Parish priests would often open churches with attached schools and ask the Sisters of Providence to send them a teacher. It would take many years to actually get the degree to teach. I was a principal when I was 29, before I ever got a degree. Today, of course it’s completely different, but when asked about my history and credentials, I tell them I went for my 20 year certificate.” She was chuckling.
Focusing again on the question, she said she was very impressed while growing up with how her family never complained about their hardship; how happily the Sisters of Providence faced their challenges and with Friendship House,[2] a Catholic organization on the South Side serving an interracial community where she filled service hours. It was run by a “Baroness,” from Europe and her husband, “Eddie Doyle.” Sr. Dorothy taught children catechism there, but she was most affected by the fact that an aristocrat and her husband lived in the same neighborhood as those they served. The working poor came to them where they would teach the children and feed the elderly. During dinner, they would first serve the food to their guests, and then eat last whatever was left over.
If you could bring about one, and only one, major change in our society that would make it a more just society, what would that be? Why this change rather than some other change?
As I listened to her touching story, I heard the children coming in the front door. She looked at the clock and closed our interview. As we rose from our seats I asked her what she felt the most important change our society needed. Her answer was quick and simple. “Rid ourselves of racism.” She stopped at the door before going out to greet the children. “I get so much more here than I give” she said. “You simply have no idea how much these family are willing to give for the time we spend with their children.” I asked what she felt she needed to make her job there easier – and the answer was not hard to answer. “Money” she said. “We need to hire someone because I’m not going to be around forever. I had always intended to reach out to more children, but I do not get paid here. We need someone professional and qualified to continue the work.”
That does sound good on paper, but I can’t help thinking that something paid is based on some sort of set time and job description. When the children come in there is a basket of snacks on a front table. Sometimes there are cakes, but other times there might be a big apple. Children don’t traditionally go after the apple, but reach for the cake. She’ll talk to them as they sit in the three rows of seats in front of her how important apples are and how lucky they were to get them donated. They should pick up one apple and if they don’t want, stick it in their book bag and take it home for someone else to eat.” I wondered if some paid qualified person would think like that. I wondered if the structure they’d secure with those 29 children would be saturated with so much dedication to the whole family. How much does being paid make an act a responsibility? I don’t know. I could hear her praying with the children before she matched them up with their tutors for the afternoon.
What keeps you going? Why don’t you burn out? What are the resources you draw upon not to burn out?
From all outward appearances, she is fulfilling her mission, completely, fully, enthusiastically, without question, or doubt. She loves what she does. She loves the families she greets every day She loves those she lives with with all her heart. She will be at the table every Monday through Thursday waiting for the children to come for 2 hours after school. By 5:00, their homework will be done, their parents will pick them up after working all day and they will go home for the night to be together with their family. I believe being an intimate part of that gives her something important. Perhaps this is what she meant when she said they give her so much more than she gives. There are things she never thinks about. What keeps her going? I would say, the fact that something needs to be done and because she loves, she’ll do whatever she can to make sure it is.
[1] http://www.sistersofprovidence.net/ministry.php
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friendship_House
