Sister Enda – an inspiration to the end

 

Despite a bad shoulder, the late Sister Enda Ryan managed to give the salute at a Sports Day march past in 2010. (Debbie Nonis pic)

From Debbie Nonis

Sister Enda Ryan, FMM. That’s how Sister Enda preferred to be known. Or just plain Mena to her family and friends back in Galbally, Ireland.

In spite of all the awards and accolades she received throughout her life, she remained first and foremost a nun of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary (FMM) and, as she said in accepting an honorary doctorate, a little “kampung girl” at heart.

Her compassion knew no bounds. Her most important legacy to me is her example of using her heart over her head, both when she ran Assunta Secondary School and even outside of school.

As a nun, she had taken a vow of poverty and thus had no financial means of her own. However, whenever approached by anyone who needed financial aid, she would be really troubled until she found someone who could help.

Debbie Nonis’s last photo of Sister Enda in her habit, after recording a video message to the incoming first formers on March 5. (Debbie Nonis pic)

Charity cases

Sister Enda would also ask permission from her convent superior to use some of her ang pows for charity cases.

Many years ago, someone came to the convent gates to ask her for help. She didn’t know this person, but she gave her what little she had.

Over the years, this person continued to come back, asking for more and more each time. Many people eventually told her that this case didn’t seem genuine, but she said: “That may be so, but how can I live with myself if she does something unspeakable in her despair?”

Fearless leader

As our “Guru Besar”, she was fearless, fighting for her teachers and her students when necessary. That taught us to be fearless too, as seen by the many activists we can count among our alumni.

She fostered the sense of family in all of us Assuntarians by getting us to share in the joys and sadness of any of our Assunta family.

She would attend open houses hosted by teachers and some of her pupils during all the different festivals, from the time she was our “Guru Besar” till she was no longer able to drive herself around. Sister Enda attended weddings of teachers and then Assuntarians, funerals of their parents and, later on, of Assuntarians themselves.

Much has already been said about how Sister Enda inspired and shaped us as our beloved “Guru Besar”, but allow me to share how she continued to inspire me personally in the later years of her life.

I am one of her past pupils and a past president of the Assunta Alumni (2015-2017).

Sister Enda signed her name but also wrote long messages for the people who helped fund the production of her biography. (Debbie Nonis pic)

Keeping up with technology

In recent years it was my honour to assist Sister Enda with her administrative and personal matters, IT woes (with help from my husband) and communication with the outside world as physical access to the world became more and more difficult for her.

She started producing a quarterly newsletter for the FMM order in her 70s using a computer. No physical cutting and pasting for this 70 something year-old back in 1999 or 2000!

Two Assunta old girls, Pat Lu and Emilia Zaidun, taught her how to email when the alumni e-group was started, and there she was among us in the cyberspace.

Well into her 90s, she continued to learn new things, albeit at a slightly slower pace, but learn she did.

When there was no crossing of district borders during the pandemic and we couldn’t go to the convent when she had IT issues, she managed to take instructions to fix those problems over the phone or via emailed screenshots.

She even learned how to join Zoom meetings at 91 years of age and remained curious about the outside world, keeping up with the news.

Health problems

The many health issues she faced barely slowed her down. She injured her shoulder when she was 75 and had to have a “spare part” put in.

Just as she was healing, she accidentally wrenched it again and there was no having surgery on it again. Her right shoulder was never the same again and she, being right-handed, had to learn how to use her left hand to manage.

She could only bring her hand to the tip of her nose, but that did not stop her from doing her duty of pinning up notices and emails on the FMM community’s notice board.

When she couldn’t use her right hand, she used her forehead to hold a notice in place while the other hand put a magnet on it.

Other issues developed over the years, like a hernia that continued to trouble her and would grow so large as to become inoperable. Then shingles struck in April 2022, quickly followed by a case of Covid-19, thankfully a mild one.

Her cross to bear

For the last two years of her life, she suffered from the incessant pain caused by postherpetic neuralgia. This past year, her weeks were filled with physio appointments three times a week and acupuncture twice a week.

But she still managed to fit in occasional visits from past pupils and old friends. It would have been enough to break a lesser person, but, for the most part, not Sister Enda. She took it as her cross to bear, possibly for the rest of her life, as it did turn out.

Sister Enda has inspired me through her determination, compassion, fortitude and generous spirit. Both my husband and I are grateful that we had the privilege to give a little back to her.

All that’s left to say is what she would sometimes say to me, as I left the convent past midnight: “See you later alligator!” - FMT

Debbie Nonis is an FMT reader.

The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.