By Shannon Hengen
During a recent conversation, Sr. Mel finished a description of a challenging moment in her religious life with the simple observation that “it’s amazing how things work out.” But given her uncommon dedication, bright mind, joyful heart, apparently limitless energy, and the abiding trust in God—nurtured through prayer–that has sustained her since childhood, things working out should seem almost predictable and not amazing at all.
Sr. Mel would insist that the trust she has come to feel over her seventy-plus years as a Sister of Our Lady of the Missions is a gift at once the greatest and also the most difficult to accept. Learning trust has come through a kind of intense listening that can demand extraordinary measures. On such occasions, she will cite a passage from Matthew as guide and comfort: “everyone who has left houses . . . for my name’s sake, will receive a hundred-fold” (19:29).
How else could she have answered the call, for example, to co-found Holy Cross High School in Saskatoon with Bishop Mahoney and Ursuline Sister Jean Elder in the mid-1960s?
Or teach catechism to air cadets for seven consecutive summers as a chaplain at the Royal Canadian Cadets Camp in Penhold, Alberta—in air force uniform–in the late 1970s-early 1980s?
Or spend six months on spiritual renewal in the late 1980s studying and travelling in France, Rome, and at St. George’s Anglican College in Jerusalem? She would insist that the grace of confidence comes not only through prayer but also directly from the support of other people on every occasion.
Sr. Mel served for more than thirty years as a teacher, a role for which she had both an extraordinary gift and a great love. In 1950, at age seventeen, Melvina first entered a classroom as a study supervisor near Wapella, Saskatchewan, teaching grades 1 through 8, before entering the Novitiate of the Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions at Sacred Heart College in Regina in 1951. (Melvina was born on a farm near Gerald, SK, in 1932.)
Eventually, over the years, having earned three Bachelor’s degrees, Sr. Mel taught at Catholic primary schools in Regina, Saskatoon, and Wolseley before taking on the task of co-founding Holy Cross in Saskatoon. Math and Christian Ethics were her main subjects, with chaplaincy as an added role; Sr. Mel then spent seventeen years at Regina’s Marian High School during the mid-1970s into the 1980s, where she touched the lives of countless young women with her beloved combination of wit, wisdom, and creativity. She has commented that her years as a teacher brought her profound happiness—those “hundredfold” blessings.
After retiring from teaching, Sr. Mel used her administrative gifts as Community Leader (Sacred Heart Academy, Regina) and Provincial Councillor from 1986 to 1992. During this time, Sacred Heart Academy was sold and converted to Cathedral Courts apartments and condominiums, where she now lives. During the difficult conversion from school, convent, and archdiocesan offices to senior housing, Sr. Mel’s guiding presence was so essential and reliable that the contractors named her Sister Foreman and had her wear a white hard hat!
When asked about major shifts in the church during her religious life, she noted the increased role of the laity, a shift that she was to join in promoting when she became first a pastoral assistant (at St. Charles Parish in Regina, 1992-94), then Pastoral Assistant at Little Flower in Regina for two years and Parish Minister for the next thirteen years (1996-2009). The hundredfold blessings of teaching were doubled as the entire life cycle—birth to death of the parishioners—became the field of ministry. Funeral ministry became a significant activity, one that Sr. Mel continues to this day.
Both Fr. Bill Mahoney, as one of the parish directors, and Sr. Mel were ardent promoters of the archdiocesan Lay Formation program and assisted at some of the formation sessions. After their retirement from Little Flower in 2009, Sr. Mel cared for Fr. Bill until his death in 2016.
Just like her other roles throughout her life, her parish ministry delighted, instructed, and enriched those around her. On the occasion of her eightieth birthday party in 2012, an anonymous poet wrote of her: “Happy birthday to a lovely lady / Who is nowhere near the age of eighty / Whose life is immersed in the laity / Where you’ll always find / A bit of gaiety.” Along with her love of laughter and fun, Sr. Mel nurtures a remarkable and inspiring trust in God, the two attributes perhaps somehow intertwining.
On a cool September day in 1956, I entered the Gr. 1 classroom of Sr. Maria Adolorata (aka Sr. Mel) at Holy Rosary School in Regina, having no sense that my teacher was as new to this experience as I was, nor that she was not much taller than any of us. [photos 3 and 4] Regardless, she clearly taught me to love learning and the profession of teaching, which eventually became my own. On retirement, I moved back to Regina and Holy Rosary Cathedral Parish, where Sr. Mel serves as a lector. In addition, she has become, for my family and many others, an admired hostess and raconteur, our time around her table being precious and holy time indeed. At age ninety, she is still teaching me, and I am amazed and grateful for how that worked out.
Noreen Hengen Cichocki, pictured here at Sr. Mel’s table, writes:
We had the pleasure of meeting Sr Mel during our various visits to Regina. The first was In 2019 when I was invited to a beautiful dinner in Sr. Mel’s apartment. It was then that I realized what a treasure is this little lady. Besides not acting her age, she is a miracle worker putting together a great, nourishing, yet festive meal – in a very short time. The second visit came in 2021 when both my husband and I were invited for breakfast after Sunday mass. The breakfast was perfect! You would always feel that beautiful hospitality that was an ingredient of Sr. Mel’s meals.
She told us the actual stories about how she helped to “engineer” the SHA into the beautiful apartment building it is. I dream, secretly but often, of eventually moving there—where I can spend time in front of the beautiful altar in the chapel of that building. So many women and girls were enriched by the events that happened in that chapel–which, by the way, is beautiful beyond any convent chapel I have ever seen.
And when I would leave the chapel, in these imaginary visits, I would go to Sr Mel’s room to see if she had any dessert left for me.
When we heard even a few of Sr’s stories, there was so much color, so much fun and hard work, and so many blessings. Only perfectly happy memories can surround her. She brings only joy and love to everyone she meets—which means, of course, that she is the very spirit of the God she represents–and she inspires each of us to be that same spirit.
Mission Viejo, California, April 2023
Daughter of Dr. Herman and Mrs. Agnes Hengen–inspired to write this after a visit with my sister, Shannon Hengen Skierszkan (below), after she moved back to Regina in 2017.
