This really sums up the life of our dear Sister Margaret Louise.

Let me begin by telling you a little about the beginning of her life. Sister’s birth mother, Bessie Schwenk, was born into a wealthy Pennsylvania family. They owned thoroughbred horses in Schwenksville, northwest of Philadelphia, and Bessie fell in love with a jockey hired by their family. The family would hear nothing of this and they disowned their daughter when she married Harvey Duble, Sister Margaret Louise’s father.

Bessie and Harvey were very happy. They had four children: Vernon, Alice, Wallace, and Elizabeth, born in 1910 near Cedar Brook in South Jersey.

In the winter of 1914 – just before Betty was four years old, within a few weeks time, both Sister Margaret Louise’s mother and father died of influenza.

She always said that she hated the color blue because her earliest memory was of wearing a blue dress, as her father carried her at her mother’s funeral, shortly before he himself died of the same influenza, and also, as many said, of a broken heart.

It is hard to believe that her wealthy mother’s family would not have accepted their four grandchildren, but they did not. The children, Margaret being the youngest, were put up for adoption. Sister Margaret Louise, Elizabeth, was probably the most fortunate, as she was adopted by a wonderful family, the Nagels.

Mary and Lewis Nagle, about whom Sister Margaret always referred as her mother and father, were truly wonderful parents—Their older children, Kathryn and Phoebe, loved their new little sister.

The story goes that, after they had had her for a short while, an interim time before she would go to another family, they said that they would keep her because she was just too much trouble for anyone else to consider.

Sister Margaret would not have been a Catholic, if it were not for the Nagels. Her original family were reluctant to accede to this, but gave in, because they had given up these children anyway.

Betty grew and prospered with the Nagels. They lived in Philadelphia, where Kathryn, her older sister, was a milliner. (Margaret always remembered wearing the prettiest hats, when she was a child!) Later the family moved to Audubon, New Jersey. They became members of St. Rose Parish, where Betty went to school, and first met our sisters.

The family included special pets, the cat, Malty, and the beautiful collie that Betty remembered as having missed her so much when she left to enter Mount Saint Mary Novitiate in 1931.

Between 1933 and 1936, Sister taught 5th and 6th grades at St. Boniface in New York City and in Pleasantville, New York. When asked in 1936 if she were happy, she said, “Yes, but I would be more happy if I could teach really little children.” Since then, from 1936 until 1980, 44 years, she always taught Kindergarten, First or Second Grade, at St. Mary’s in Newburgh, in Crestwood (25 years in all), and also in Hawthorne, NY, Woodbury and Fairview, New Jersey.

When I was in the novitiate in 1953, Sister Agnes Alma, a renowned educator in our Community, told our class…, “The best story-teller that I have ever heard to tell stories to little children is our own Sister Margaret Louise.”

In 1980, when Sister was ready to retire from teaching, she didn’t really retire. Instead, she trained to become an Infirmary Aide, which she truly loved, and she worked with our infirm sisters for four years. From 1984 to 1994, 10 years, Sister Margaret took care of Mount Saint Mary chapel, readying the sanctuary for all liturgical events, and the frequent weddings held here.

Since 1994, Sister continued the work she had been doing, chauffeuring sisters at the Mount to doctor appointments and with other needs, as well as helping out in our Development Office.

It was during her days in Crestwood that my family met Sister Margaret Louise, who taught both my sisters, Ann and Georgia. Over the years she grew to be a real part of our family, spending holidays and vacations with us. I know that these vacations were a special part of her life, as they were of mine, particularly the beautiful weeks in Maine – the scenery, the boat rides, the lobster dinners. When we would get together, Margaret was always the life of the party, singing, laughing, joking, telling stories and dancing.

Sister Margaret loved people. She seemed to have a cheery word for just about everyone, strangers we met wherever we went, and especially any employees of Mount Saint Mary! They were all just wonderful. I’d be thinking, “Come on, Margaret, -- let’s go – You don’t have to stop to talk to EVERYONE!”

Sister Margaret truly loved God. Her whole life was dedicated to His service, and her actions motivated by His love.

Sister Margaret loved little children. Wherever she went she sought them out, talking to them lovingly, as their mothers looked on with approval. She was never reticent with them, and, for some reason, little children were always drawn to her.

As you walk down the hall, you can hear the canaries singing. They are praising God – as are the fish swimming in the little tank in her room – and the beautiful plants nearby.

With the little children and with nature, Sister Margaret Louise is continuing to praise the God she loved the most!

Barbara Anderson, OP