Grace Kishumba & Sr. Connie Pospisil MM
The Affiliate Movement loss its first person to COVID-19 last week. Her name is Grace Kishumba, a secondary school teacher in the Mwanza school district of northern Tanzania on Lake Victoria. Constansia Mbogomo, the Chapter Coordinator for the Mwanza Chapter wrote to say, “Thank you for being with us in this loss! Grace was so humble and caring, always at the service for the other. We are waiting from the family news of the burial of which we are not able to attend but we can still pray with them. We are trying to be safe which is not very easy.”
Board member Roxanne Hughes-Wheatland along with Rich Lessard and Bob Short have been in touch with Constansia. She will send us more information about Grace in the near future. Please pray for Grace, her family and the Mwanza Chapter.
We also remember today Sr. Constance (Connie) Pospisil MM, who died suddenly of an apparent heart attack on May 20th. Agnes Walsh of the Long Island Chapter forwarded an email from Sr. Theresa Baldini MM who wrote: “Connie was a missioner in Chile and Brazil before joining the Contemplative Community is 2004, and has spent the last 16 years in Lemoa with Helen in our Contemplative dwelling there. Her death was a shock to all of us. We learned from Helen that at breakfast on May 20, Connie mentioned that she had pain during the night on her left side and arm. She rubbed some ointment on the area and it relieved the pain a bit. Then around 10 a.m., she came into the Kitchen where Helen was preparing the noon meal. She made a cup of tea and when she sat down on the chair, Helen heard something like a sigh, and Connie had slumped down peacefully in the chair. When she went over to Connie, Helen realized she had died.”
Connie was, in part, responsible for the founding of the Guatemala Chapter. That Chapter, along with others throughout the world who were invited to participate, celebrated Connie’s life at a chapter Zoom gathering on Saturday, May 23rd.