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Margaret Macdonald died on 9^th March, 2006, aged 97, after 77 years in Sion. She is missed by many sisters and friends

This account of her life was written or her Requiem Mass on Monday 20^th March.

Margaret Mary Elspeth Maxwell Macdonald was born at Strand on the Green, Chiswick, London on the 29^th. June 1908. She was the oldest child having a younger sister and brother. She was sent to school at Our Lady of Sion Bayswater but the intention was to send her for her secondary education to St Paul`s Girls school. However at the age of twelve her mother suddenly and unexpectedly died from a heart attack. Margaret was deeply shocked by this experience and her father having to cope alone with young children kept Margaret at Sion and made her a boarder.

Margaret was happy at school and had many tales to tell of the Sisters at that time and indeed of other pupils such as our future Sr Laurice. Although Margaret’s mother had been a Scottish Presbyterian and her father C.of E. Margaret was drawn to Catholicism and was received into the Church at the age of 16. Two years later at the age of 18 she entered the novitiate in Bayswater and made her first Profession in April 1929.

Her first years were spent studying and she gained a Bachelor of Arts Honours degree in English Literature from the University of London in 1934. Languages were always her great love and she taught English, Latin and later some French in our schools in Holloway Acton Burnell and Worthing. She went to Acton Burnell at the beginning of the Second World War and would tell of the first days there sleeping on sacks stuffed with bracken for mattresses and gathering wild plants to supplement the rationed food supplies. She returned to Acton Burnell in 1949 and a year or two later was made” Reverend Mother” .She returned to Holloway to take up the same position in the summer of 1958 and likewise in Worthing from 1964 until 1967. Margaret loved walking and would together with the young Sisters walk as far as Littlehampton and back.

In 1967she was posted to take charge of our house in Ein Karem just outside Jerusalem. In some ways this was a difficult position as the community was largely French speaking and even the inhabitants of the village rather resented the last Superior being sent elsewhere and this newcomer from Britain being thrust upon them. However Margaret won through this indifference and made lasting friends to this day from that time. It was also a time when she got to know many of the sisters from our communities all over the world, who went to study in Israel.

After this term of office Margaret transferred to our Ratisbonne Community in Jerusalem and then to Rome for six years. These were heady days as she helped in the newly formed Sidic Community where every effort was being made to promulgate the teachings of the Nostra Aetate document of the Second Vatican Council.

Margaret and Sr. Edward joined the charismatic movement and made many friends in their prayer group and these friends remain in contact to this day. Margaret went to our Bellinter community in Ireland in 1978 and then for a short while to the small Community in Wembley before joining the Bayswater Community in July 1981, where she remained until failing health and strength made the move to our house for the sick and elderly in Farncombe Rd. in Worthing, necessary. Unfortunately this house had to close in December 2004 so she returned to London to the nursing home of the Sisters of Nazareth in East Finchley.

This period of her life was hard for her. She missed being at Sion so much, but she was patient and sweet with all who cared for her and always grateful and mindful of her carers needs too.

On the 26^th.February about 9.0am she suffered a stroke which caused extensive damage to her brain. At first she was semi conscious but soon lapsed into a coma, in which she remained until she died in the early morning of March 9^th. Margaret loved people and cared deeply for them. On her bedroom wall for many years she had a large poster bearing the words “Be ye kind”, she would point this out to her visitors and say “that is really important”. She was kind. She was a cultured, loving, caring person who had a great sense of fun, great indignation when she met injustice, but patience with the weaknesses of others. She loved God and her faith, and the Congregation to which she had given her whole life. We miss her greatly but are sure that she is now in the beatitude of heaven with so many of her family and friends and Sisters who have gone before her. May she rest in the peace and joy of God in whom she had complete trust all her life.