Goodbye, Sr Thuy

 This is Sr Thuy (pronounced Twee). She's a Sister of the Lovers of the Holy Cross, a Vietnamese religious order which is the only women's religious in the north of Vietnam (the more communist end, closer to China).

She came to the United States ten years ago to study. She spent the first two years in California just learning English.This was a difficult and lonely time.Then, she moved to Milwaukee which is in the far north of the US where it snows for five months of the year. What a contrast to tropical Vietnam!

She studied a Bachelor of Arts, then a Masters of Counselling, then over the last three summers (in what should have been her holidays) came over to Omaha to do the spiritual direction course (and another masters degree). She only went home to visit  her family once during this time, due both to cost of airfare and the Vietnamese government being restrictive on travel for religious.

She's been our classmate here at Creighton, and everybody's favourite person in the course. She has such a beautiful, sunny disposition which belies how much she has suffered through all the challenges of language, study, enculturation and distance from her family and friends.

And now she's gone. She left last weekend. We're all so happy for her that she has at last finished what she set out to do  - to gain skills which she couldn't readily get in Vietnam so that she can be of service to the younger nuns in her rapidly growing religious order.

I am inspired by the sacrifice she has made. While coming to the US to study has for me been very much a treat, for her it has been ten years of hard work away from her family and friends, sustained by her incredibly strong faith and prayer life. She will do great work in Vietnam. But we miss her! The place already isn't the same without her. We (our classmates) have all said we'd love to come visit her, or she can come meet us halfway in Hawaii in a couple of years, but realistically, that probably won't happen. So this has been a friendship for a season, one which has enriched us all.




Comments

  1. Truly inspiring. It's a reminder that I should appreciate what I have. Look forward to welcoming you home Fr Jim.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Charmaine. I'll be back in three and a half weeks

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  2. Maybe a walking trek in North Vietnam is in order my good friend? You would love the sights and sounds of Hanoi.

    ReplyDelete

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