The Sweetest Nun I Know

THE SWEETEST NUN I KNOW During my 20 year Air Force career, I was assigned to the Chaplain's Office as a Chapel Manager. During this time, I was stationed in Vietnam and had the distinct privilege to work in a Vietnamese orphanage. I met the most wonderful Nun I ever had the pleasure of knowing in all of my time in the Air Force. Her name was Sister Dorothea and truly a gift of God. She taught English and American History. The children in that orphanage loved Sister Dorothea with as much love as she showed to each of them. I was a young man of 27 and Sister Dorothea was then in her early 70s. She had the 'get-up-and-go' of many of the much younger Nuns assigned to the orphanage. Under her tutelage, the children and the younger Nuns became model persons who knew about love given and received. All of this love and cheer, along with the valuable scholarly learning made all concerned to admire, respect and love this gift of God. She became the greatest giver of the kind of love the entire world would be better off to learn to love the way Sister Dorothea. I was in Vietnam from April of 1970 to April of 1971. I was reassigned Stateside after that year but remained in contact with Sister Dorothea loved. Three years passed and suddenly, I had no word from her. I contacted the Monsignor who was in charge of the orphanage and learned that Sister Dorothea had died peacefully in her sleep on the night before Easter Sunday. A Sunrise service was held in her honor and a memorial plaque with the names of the 20 orphans and the 5 staff Nuns now hangs in the Chapel that Sister Dorothea loved so much and spent many hours in prayer for her “children”. Heaven will be a brighter place due to her presence.