School Sister of Notre Dame Joel Patrice Christy, head of the day care center at the Co-Cathedral
of the Sacred Heart in Charleston, spends time with some of the many children she cares for.
Martina Hart Photo/Courtesy of The Catholic Spirit

'Let the Children Come to Me ...'
Sister Joel Christy Assists Working Parents
in Charleston through Day Care

Courtesy of The Catholic Spirit - Newspaper of the
Wheeling-Charleston, West Virginia Diocese (June 9, 2006)

By Martina Hart

CHARLESTON-A framed newspaper clipping from 1987 in School Sister of Notre Dame Joel Patrice Christy's office reads: "(Smiles!) To Sister Joel and Sacred Heart Co-Cathedral for creating Charleston's newest day care center, more help for working parents."

Sister Joel grew up in Marshfield, Wis. She has two younger brothers, Pat and Joe, in whose honor she chose her religious name. After attending kindergarten in a public school, her father enrolled her in a Catholic elementary school. Her first grade teacher, School Sister of Notre Dame Mary Ernest Gibson, not only taught her to read, but also sparked in her the desire to become a religious sister and a teacher herself. After graduating from Catholic high school in 1958 Sister Joel entered the novitiate of the School Sisters of Notre Dame in Milwaukee, spending her first year of religious studies in the cloistered novitiate building.

"My mother wasn't Catholic at the time, but she always went to Mass with us," Sister Joel remembers. She attributes her cheerful disposition to her parents who "were happy people and happy with each other." Both died a few years ago within six months of each other at the age of 93.

In 1962, Sister Joel took her final vows. Teaching during the day, she attended night classes in order to earn her master's degree in special education. She worked as a pastoral assistant for two years and taught at a Franciscan boarding school in Boston for about six years. Before coming to West Virginia she served as principal at a special education grade school run by the School Sisters of Notre Dame in Texas for about five years. The sisters also ran a program for handicapped people living independently in an apartment complex while pursuing jobs in the community.

"When one of my friends in Wheeling heard that (then) Father (Edward) Sadie had similar plans for the Charleston area, she recommended that I head up that program here," she recalled. "We housed about four or five mildly handicapped young men and two or three young ladies. We tried this program for two years."

However, because of the different economic situation it was not as easy for people with handicaps in West Virginia to find jobs as it was in Texas. Around that time, Sacred Heart bought the former Kanawha Valley Hospital at the corner of Virginia and Dunbar Streets. The idea emerged to use part of that building to start a day care center.

About six months later-after tearing down most of the building to use as a parking lot and other renovations to the remaining structure-in October 1987 Sacred Heart Day Care Center opened its doors.

"We had 15 kids the first week with one head teacher and one aid," Sister Joel remembered. The center is now licensed for 80 children and is filled close to capacity. Besides full-time day care for younger children, the center also offers before- and after-school care for children attending Sacred Heart Grade School across the street, adding an average of 40 students in the afternoon.

Many of Sister Joel's former students have stayed in contact with her. "Every year I receive invitations to high school graduations from students who knew me from when they were three years old. One time a young man brought me a rosary from his trip to Rome."

Sister Joel is the only School Sister of Notre Dame in West Virginia, but she keeps in touch with other sisters of her order via phone and e-mail. "Each of us sisters who is still working has a prayer partner in our retirement homes in Mount Calvary and Elm Grove near Milwaukee," she explained. They pray for each other and keep one another informed. Sister Joel's prayer partner happens to be her former first grade teacher, Sister Mary Ernest. The love for reading books, instilled in those early years, has not waned either. "I don't watch TV," Sister Joel said. "Instead I read about five books a week."

Although Sister Joel has lived in small and large communities and had good superiors, she does not miss living in a religious community.

"Our training in the novitiate gave us the basic foundation, a security to go out into the world and to be responsible for our religious life living alone," she said.

Sister Joel enjoys close spiritual friendships with many in the parish and beyond. Since 1995 she has been serving on the board of directors for West Virginia University Hospitals where she holds the vice chair position. "We are 18 people from all over the state. I'm one of the few women on the board." She likes the opportunity to meet different people and to serve a larger community. A few years ago she also helped to start the Rosenbaum Family House for families of adult patients in WVU hospitals.

"It is similar to the Ronald McDonald houses for younger patients," she explained.

Sister Joel represents the hospitals' board of directors on the Rosenbaum Family House Board of Advisors and helps organize fund-raisers. "I've loved every job I had," Sister Joel summarized. "And I never changed my mind about being a religious sister." She loves Charleston and has no plans to retire. In fact, the Sacred Heart Day Care Center is looking into expanding its program to include children who are under three years old.

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