Sister M. Margareta Bertrand, SSND

On the evening of January 29, 2018, at 7:25 p.m., our beloved Sister M. Margareta Bertrand, 100, died peacefully in Notre Dame Health Care, Good Counsel Hill, Mankato, Minnesota. After celebrating her 100th birthday in August, she experienced several periods of declining health, but would rally, often to the surprise of her caregivers. Sisters were keeping vigil with her in the days leading up to her death. The funeral liturgy, with her nephew, Father Paul Turner, as presider, will be held Friday, February 9, at 10:30 a.m. in Our Lady of Good Counsel Chapel, followed by burial in Good Counsel Cemetery. A prayer service of remembrance will precede the funeral liturgy on Friday morning at 9:00. We extend our sympathy to her nieces Sisters Mary and Catherine Bertrand, SSND, and to her Turner and Bertrand nieces and nephews and their families, her friends, former students and colleagues, and her sisters in community, the School Sisters of Notre Dame and SSND Associates. She was preceded in death by her parents, Benno and Margaret (Neudecker) Bertrand, her sisters, Alice Turner and Agnes, who died in infancy, and her brothers Francis and Leo, and Isidore, who also died in infancy. Sister Margareta, the first child in her family, was born in Clements, Minnesota on August 19, 1917. She was baptized Florine Mary at St. Joseph Church on September 2. When Florine was four, the family moved to nearby Morgan. Her parents valued education and were great readers, and her mother came from a family of musicians. Florine grew up loving to read and learned to play the piano, violin and saxophone. She attended St. Michael School in Morgan for first grade, where she was taught by Franciscan Sisters from Milwaukee. However, when the sisters withdrew from the school the next year, the school closed for three years, and Florine went to public school. While in fourth grade, Florine was especially inspired by her teacher who was also an art teacher. It was then that Florine knew she wanted to be a teacher. In 1927, as Sister Margareta later wrote, “There was joy again in every Catholic home when St. Michael School reopened with School Sisters of Notre Dame as teachers.” She received her First Holy Communion in the spring of 1928 and recounted, “Thoughts concerning the life of a sister came to me about that time, but always troubled me. It was outstanding in my mind that a sister left her home, and returned once or twice, or never.” Following eighth grade graduation in 1931, Florine’s parents offered her the opportunity to attend Good Counsel Academy in Mankato, but she preferred to stay home and attend Morgan Public High School. She later wrote of her school days, “My school life was fascinating, most pleasant, successful; my teachers seem to have inculcated into my very bones a thirst for knowledge, a love for study, the desire to do my best.” After high school graduation in 1935, Florine did attend Good Counsel Academy for post-graduate commercial courses. During that time, her perception of sisters changed, and she told her parents in June that she would like to enter the candidature in August. Her father advised her to wait a year, and she spent that year working as a stenographer, first in Morgan and then at St. Michael’s Indian Mission in North Dakota. She entered the SSND candidature in August 1937. The following year, she did her practice teaching with third graders at SS. Peter & Paul School, Mankato. At her reception into the novitiate in 1939, she was given the name Sister M. Margareta. Following profession of vows in 1940, she taught grade two at St. Stanislaus, Winona, for one year. When she was assigned to teach high school at St. Matthew, St. Paul, the next year, she really missed teaching primary grades. She considered her first years as a secondary teacher very much of a learning experience, but grew to love and respect this age level. She remained at St. Matthew until 1947. She then taught at St. Francis de Sales, St. Paul; Good Counsel Academy and Loyola High School, Mankato; and St. Mary, New England, North Dakota. In 1954, she moved to St. Felix, Wabasha, staying there until 1959. At that time, she was appointed directress of aspirants and social studies teacher at Good Counsel Academy, a position she held until 1965. She earned a B.A. in social studies from St. Catherine’s College in 1948 and an M.S. Ed. in history from Creighton University in 1951. As a social studies teacher, she challenged her students to learn as much as possible from current events (for example, assigning students to watch and take notes on the televised presidential debates) while studying the events of the past. She was a life-long learner who wished to instill this same spirit in her students. She served as treasurer of the Minnesota Catholic Education Association, chaired the SSND Social Studies Committee, and was also on the Diocesan Social Studies Committee. In March 1965, Sister Margareta was elected the fifth Provincial Superior of the Mankato Province. This was an era of change in many ways. On Good Counsel Hill, a new academy building had just been completed. The move of the students across the Hill freed the motherhouse space for expansion of the college program and the development of the Good Counsel Reading Center. The church completed the final session of Vatican II in December 1965. The council produced great changes in the church, many of which impacted religious life. Sisters began to dialogue not only on the local level, but also on the provincial and congregational level. Apostolic fields in addition to formal education were made available to sisters. The congregation invited sisters to prepare for the 13th General Chapter by writing position papers that would lead to the updating of the SSND rule and constitution. In her introduction to the position paper process. Sister Margareta encouraged sisters to renew themselves in the spirit of the SSND founders. The provincial chapter expanded its membership, and meetings were open to observers. One aspect of renewal was the modernizing of the religious habit, which happened in the Mankato Province in early 1969. Many religious women in general began to question religious life and their commitment, which provided a major challenge to leadership. At the liturgy celebrating Sister Margareta’s 100th birthday, her nephew, Father Paul, summed up this time in her life: “We could not have known the challenges Sister Margareta would face. Sisters were making difficult vocational decisions, all of which she had to respect while holding the community together in hope.” Sister Margareta returned to teaching, her first love, in 1971. In the course of the next twenty years, she taught at St. Agnes, St. Paul; Trinity, Dickinson, North Dakota; Cotter, Winona; Don Bosco, Gilbertville; Lourdes, Rochester; and Guadalupe Area Project, St. Paul. In 1989 she received the St. Joseph’s Award from Cotter High School. The award is given “to individuals who have contributed substantial amounts of time, talent and resources to Cotter over a number of years.” Sister Margareta was recognized for her involvement in Cotter as a teacher who “continues to help her students grow through searching and learning. Her enthusiasm for life and her humility has gained for her the respect and admiration of those who know her.” In the course of her second round as a teacher, she served on the Winona Diocesan Pastoral Commission, the Peace and Justice Committee and the National Catholic Rural Life Conference Board, where she was also a curriculum consultant. In 1992, Sister Margareta joined the staff of the Good Counsel Education Center and volunteered as a tutor for Loyola High School. After spending the 1994-95 year as a volunteer in Spearfish, South Dakota, she began her ministry of retirement and community service in August 1995. Her thirst for knowledge was seemingly never quenched, as she avidly read newspapers and news magazines, attended as many meetings and presentations as possible, and was willing to discuss current events with any and all she met. She delighted in talking with former students and had a special place in her heart for her nieces and nephews. St. Paul’s words, “If you are a teacher, then teach!” so aptly apply to Sister Margareta’s life. She was grateful to God for the many blessings of her life; may she now live eternally in God’s presence, at peace, and with most of her questions answered!