Doane Stuart News
Sr. Whitfield Day
Tuesday, February 14 was Valentine's Day. At Doane Stuart it was also Sister Whitfield Day, a day in which we remember and celebrate our friend, colleague and teacher, Sr. Katherine Whitfield, who enriched the lives of our students for over 70 years, by wearing red or pink. The following remarks by Middle School Coordinator, Seamus Hodgkinson were made at our annual All-School Chapel in honor of Sister Whitfield. Mr. Hodgkinson’s remarks have been reproduced in their entirety in order to share with the greater community the spirit of this very special woman. A video of Sister Whitfield Chapel is also available, online, at: http://youtu.be/pEhOaWs4DTI. First the bare details: Kathleen Whitfield was born in Albany in 1913. She entered the Society of the Sacred Heart in 1939 and spent 36 years in the classrooms and library at Kenwood – Doane Stuart’s former home. She died at age 92 in 2006.
How many people in this chapel actually knew Sister Whitfield?
Not a large number – that’s what I expected.
Ten years from now it may be no one.
Which raises the question – why bother to keep remembering someone who is long gone, and for most people is only a grainy image on some long ago picture?
I am pretty sure that Sister Katie Whitfield, or “Woodie” as she was affectionately called, would feel the same way. If she knew that we were all gathered here on her account she’d make a dismissive sound something like this – PSHISSH – and a distinctive gesture – something like this – which spoke a thousand words.
On the other hand, Katie Whitfield would enthusiastically approve of all this wonderful blends of reds and pinks, and would definitely be sporting her own creative version in the form of a hat or a scarf, or even funky socks, which a nun shouldn’t really be wearing.
Plus I know that she’d rather have you all running around outside or in the gym, instead of being stuck in here listening to me talk about her. So why dust off the old pictures every year and once again try to convince more and more people who never knew her that Sister Whitfield matters? Here’s why I think it does, and why I think you should keep listening even if it all seems like ancient history.
We are all on a journey –
We’ve all come from somewhere and we’re all going somewhere.
This sliver of time we’re all in right now needs some reference points – links to the past which can become both compass and anchor for the journey ahead.
I believe that for us at Doane Stuart Sister Whitfield is such a reference point.
So how can a little old lady, sitting, plucking away one finger at a time on the keys of a clunky Remington typewriter, her face smudged with ink from the ribbon she’d just rewound, possibly have anything to say to an iPod, iPad, Facebook, Tweeter-twitting generation like yours?
How can a bent over, shuffling, semi-invalid, gallantly defying the pain by pushing her wheelchair ahead of her for support, possibly connect to a healthy, fast-moving, hectically busy, youthful crowd like yourselves?
How can a white-haired librarian, who tenderly held real books in her hands as she recorded, documented, labeled and filed them (with the help of a very large magnifying glass), possibly have anything to offer a digital, instant, wired and wireless world like yours?
I feel that in asking them I have also partially helped answer my own questions.
-Surely even the youngest among us in this chapel have come to realize that there are some things which are buried deep within us as a species, and transcend the boundaries of history, and culture and technology. Call them human essentials – the big constants of the heart and spirit which keep us all truly alive.
For me Sister Whitfield, whether you knew her or not, represents those essentials, and as such she is bigger than her tiny self.
-I can hear that PSHISSH again!
Don’t get me wrong – Sister Whitfield was no saint in the Mother Theresa mold – I can hear her chuckling in agreement. She was eccentric and quirky, and could certainly be cranky, and she called a spade a spade.
However as she pushed that wheelchair along the hallways of Kenwood – never sitting in it by the way – the seat was reserved for a pile of precious books – Katie Whitfield was always alert and aware, and as Mr. Y reflected with me recently, she acknowledged your existence with clear eye contact and an impish smile.
I always found that after an encounter my own day picked up – who wouldn’t feel the need to put a spring in their step and a cheer in their heart, when inspired by an eighty pound, eighty-plus year old, twinkly-eyed, wheeling dervish in odd-ball clothing, with a knitted cap which barely contained a riot of white frizzy hair.
Oh if we could each only meet a Katie Whitfield every day!
She had wisdom to share in her gestures, and in her silence, and in her measured words.
She once paid our own dear Mrs. Segerstrom the ultimate compliment – passing her in the hallway Katie told her in admiration “People say that I move fast, but you’re even faster!”
For those of you who didn’t know Sister Whitfield I got to thinking that you could visualize her as a living, breathing, real-life, pint-sized Thunder Chicken, who replaced the costume with a big heart and a tender soul.
I watched her in her eighties
-Struggle up the steep hill to the soccer field to cheer on our team,
-Appear in the gym for a basketball game, complete with pom poms,
-Throw herself into Conges with delighted energy,
-Celebrate an eclipse of the sun with students, with genuine excitement and childish wonder.
So think of this chapel as bottled Whitfield. She is long gone but is an important part of who we are and where we want to go. We need to take her magic with us on the journey ahead.
It is so appropriate that we celebrate this chapel on Valentine’s Day.
I hope that you all are loved and give love on this day.
Katie Whitfield was really all about love.
Not Hallmark card and chocolate love, but the real and honest struggle each day to be a person of true heart.
For that reason her message is timeless and each year this celebration of her life comes with important lessons about love, whether you knew the real living lady or not. There is the lesson about COMMITMENT – Katie Whitfield gave her life to the Religious of The Sacred Heart, even though it meant passing up on her own personal ambitions.
She is asking each of us – What do you believe in?
There is the lesson about BEING GENUINE – with Katie Whitfield what you saw was what you got, up front.
She is asking each of us – Who are you really?
There is the lesson about ACCEPTANCE – Katie Whitfield spent her later years challenged by steady pain, but none of us who knew her ever heard her whine or complain.
She is asking each of us – How do you deal with life’s ups and downs?
There is the lesson about BEING HUMAN – Katie Whitfield was imperfect and took full ownership of that, with the result that she always gently accepted the flaws of others.
She is asking each of us – How well do you forgive?
There is the lesson about TRUE TOLERANCE – Katie Whitfield locked herself into a rigid life of religious focus and yet that never restricted her appreciation of the faith path of those around her.
She is asking each of us – How well do you step outside your comfort zone?
There is the lesson about HUMOR – Katie Whitfield laughed with the world. In her last letter from hospital to the Middle School, she wanted to reassure us that she was not quite yet at the Pearly Gates. She wrote, “I’m at Saint Peter’s – the one on Manning Boulevard.”
Sister Whitfield is asking each of us – How well do you laugh at yourself?
I have no doubt that Katie Whitfield breezed right through those Pearly Gates and is one of our biggest supporters up there, wherever that may be.
Now that she can walk on water, I’m sure that she crossed the Hudson and is comfortably with us here in Rensselaer.
As you go through your days,
Listen,
For the clunking of a typewriter,
or the rattle of a wheel chair,
or the soft shuffle of slippered feet,
or the distinctive Whitfield sound -- ------PSHISSH.
KATIE WHITFIELD’S SPIRIT IS ALL AROUND US!
-Seamus Hodgkinson