I am Matt Thomas.

Sister Josephine

April 30, 2007

2007 has not been kind to our family. After a long struggle with a painful blood disorder, my great aunt Sister Josephine Miklic passed away last week. Sister, as we always called her, was a fixture at family functions and always a favorite of the grandchildren. She was the most gentle, kind, and concerned person I think I’ve ever known.

When I was living in Baltimore, I found out that Josephine was ill, and might not have much time left. Not knowing what else to do in the situation, I sat down and wrote her a letter—the first on-paper, handwritten letter I’d written in a long time. It felt good to tell her about my life, and to get to speak to her like a grownup. It’s always a bit of a strange thing when you realize for the first time that you’re relating to your grandparents’ generation as fellow adults, not your guardians and caretakers. When she got the letter, she was too sick to write back, but I found out later that she was so proud of it, she had the letter xeroxed and the copy mailed to my grandmother. A few months later, I received a typewritten response—she had dictated it to a fellow nun and asked her to send it to me. You had better believe I still have that letter.

As the months went by, we kept hearing that Josephine was, against all odds, doing better. I was very excited when, last summer, she made the trip from the Loretto Motherhouse in Kentucky to my great uncle Johnny’s house in Huntsville to see my grandparents, who we had brought up for a visit. She was driven down to Huntsville by her priest, who told me many stories about Sister that, graciously, reinforced every wonderful idea I’d ever had about the woman. But more than anything, we were relieved to see Sister doing so much better. In all the tumult of last year, with losing my dad, moving home, and my grandparents becoming ill, getting to spend those two days with Sister was a great reminder of the way things had been.

I last saw Sister a month ago, at my grandmother’s funeral. She had written me a few weeks earlier, and I hadn’t yet responded. In the most gentle way possible, she warned me that I had better hurry up and write her back. Sadly, I never had a chance to write that letter.

Josephine’s last gift to our family is an odd one. I could hardly believe my ears when, shortly after I heard that she was sick, my mom told me that Josephine had donated her body to science, and so as a result, there would be no funeral services. After losing my granddad in February and my grandmom in March, I’m not sure anyone could have taken another funeral just yet. We’ll get together in Demopolis in a few weeks for a memorial service, and say our goodbyes to this wonderful woman.

It’s been a sad time for our family, but our losses have made me remember the way our family once was for the first time in a long time. I made a lot of happy memories with my grandparents and Sister Josephine, and like that letter, I’ll be holding onto them for as long as I’m able.