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Marité was a stickler, a perfectionist about little details.
In Madonna House, we say the rosary every evening right after supper, and we take turns leading a decade. We can lead it in any language we wish.
I asked Marité to teach me the Our Father and Hail Mary so that I could lead it in French.
She gave me many lessons—many, many lessons. I had to do it perfectly. Finally, my pronunciation met with Marité’s approval. Now some people hearing me lead my decade have asked me if I am French!
Doreen Dykers
Marié and Mamie Legris were close friends who went back a long way. They were in the first class to make promises in Madonna House.
One night, when both were quite elderly, they went out to supper together and while they ate, they enjoyed reminiscing. I was their driver.
When I went to pay afterwards, the cashier told me that our meals had already been paid for. She said that the two gentlemen at the table next to us had been so touched by the relationship between the two of them that they decided to pay for their meal.
Carol Ann Gieske
Marité wore her heart on her face. When she met someone, it didn’t matter what she was feeling inside, she gave joy.
Marie-Therese McLaughlin
Marité really took you on. She did that for me; she was my big sister. Whenever I came back from one of our mission houses, we had a visit and she gave me a word.
The loss of hearing was a great suffering for her. She, who was seen as a kind of “queen of hospitality,” could no longer take part in group conversations. She really struggled with this.
But she made a decision to just be there, going to the tea break every afternoon.
And when she died, she had so few clothes.
She did everything she could to live the Gospel.
Andorra Howard
In her old age, the two levels inside Marité became more and more apparent.
On the more surface level, she continued to be easily anxietous as she had always been, and though I never heard her complain, she for sure suffered from her hearing loss and other physical limitations.
But she must have made a deep act of surrender, of acceptance of these things, because, on a deeper level, Marité radiated peace.
Paulette Curran
