Sr. Alice Penrose (M. M. Dermot)
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Alice Regina Penrose, SHCJ is the daughter of Ada and John Penrose with two sisters and two brothers. Sr. Alice attended Most Blessed Sacrament Parochial School and is still very grateful for the wonderful education provided by the Immaculate Heart Sisters. She then went on to West Catholic High School for Girls in Philadelphia, Pa. In her junior year, Sr. Alice was taught American History by Mother Mary Dorothy Sheehan, SHCJ and was so impressed by her that becoming a Holy Child Sister took center stage in Sr. Alice’s mind.

During her senior year, Sr. Alice had a starring role in the senior play, Booth Tarkington’s “The Fighting Littles.” Many visits were made to Sharon Hill, Pa. and on August 28, 1944, Sr. Alice entered the Society along with one of her West Catholic classmates, Kathleen Walsh, and a close neighbor from Most Blessed Sacrament, Anne Rush. With 11 others in her set, Sr. Alice was professed in 1947. By then she had been given her religious name, M. M. Dermot. Her first teaching assignment was to Assumption School on Spring Garden Street in Philadelphia, Pa., but only a few weeks later she was reassigned to St. Edward’s School. There she spent five years teaching fourth, sixth, and eighth grade students.

Insurmountable Sacrifice & New Territory
After her final profession in 1952, Sr. Alice was sent to St. Charles’ School in Portland, Ore. Her father had just been diagnosed with terminal cancer and years later, her mother told her that this news, along with Sr. Alice’s assignment to Oregon, was like hearing of two deaths at once. Sr. Alice’s eight years in Portland with never a visit home even at the death of her father, were followed by 14 years in Africa. She told her mother that she would see her more often while in Africa because missionaries came home every few years.

From 1960–1970, Sr. Alice’s home was Ifuho, Ikot Ekpene, Nigeria, teaching for four years at the Teacher Training College and serving as Principal for one year. During those years, the Biafran War broke out, forcing schools to close. The frightening sound of Russian MIG bombers flying overhead became a daily, horrible experience. The most terrible day was seeing two planes flying low over the Ifuho Teacher Training College, dropping bombs on the compound. Luckily, the students had vacated, but the Handmaids and Holy Child Sisters were still there. The convents were spared, but the college buildings, especially the library, suffered severe damage. An interesting fact: even though the library was torn up and in chaos, a 12-inch statue of the Holy Child remained intact.

After that, Sr. Alice with Helen Mulligan, SHCJ (M. M. Audrey) waited in Port Harcourt for several days until a “gun-runner” plane arrived to take them to Rome. During their stay in Port Harcourt with the Holy Rosary Sisters, they frequently had to hide under the bed when planes flew over dropping bombs.

When the gun-runner plane finally arrived, they discovered that there were only six seats in the back. All the other seats had been removed to make room for boxes of ammunition to be brought into Biafra. A number of ex-patriots boarded with the two sisters and gave them two of the seats. Some had dragged mattresses onto the plane to sit or lie on during the flight. The plane had to fly without lights so that they would not be seen by anti-aircraft guns.

The first welcome stop was at Fernando Po, just south of the equator, where hospitable people fed breakfast to the passengers at 3:30 a.m. After eating in the dark, they returned to the plane en route to Portugal. The Holy Ghost priest who had accompanied the Sisters of the Holy Child Jesus (SHCJ) had a cousin in Lisbon and in her Dominican convent, the two enjoyed good meals and warm beds for several days. Srs. Alice and Helen finally made their way to Rome where M. M. Laurentia was anxiously waiting for the latest news of Biafra. By then, practically all SHCJ had left Africa and were safely at home, but returned  in a few months when the war ended in 1970.

Sr. Alice was sent to teach at the Teacher Training College in Takoradi. Meanwhile, the bishop of the Makurdi diocese, Donal Murray, was asking for sisters to teach in a girls’ secondary school, St. Anne’s in Oturkpo. Catherine Egan, SHCJ (M. M. Ronald) the Vicar (Superior of the Society’s West African Vicariate), asked Sr. Alice to open a house there and see to the building of a school. She would be alone until Alice Coyle, SHCJ (M. M. Bridget) returned in a few months from her home visit.

With the Lagos driver and a van filled with house wares and books, Sr. Alice traveled to Oturkpo, passing through many roadblocks.  Even though the Biafran War had ended, federal soldiers were waiting at many crossroads, armed with a frightening amount of ammunition. Several times when they were stopped, Sr. Alice pacified the soldiers by giving them plastic rosaries and candy bars, and the van was allowed to pass on intact.

The seed of St. Anne’s School had been planted by an Irish couple, Mr. and Mrs. White, but by the time Sr. Alice arrived, they had already left the country. Sr. Alice found that the school was up to Form 3 (Form 3 is the equivalent to one’s junior year in high school in the U.S., however, the secondary schools in Africa had a five year program)—all records were sitting in cardboard boxes on the mud floor. Her only source of information was the pastor of St. Mary’s Church, Frank O’Donnell, an Irish Holy Ghost Father. Land had been purchased across the railroad tracks from St. Mary’s, but it had not yet been cleared for the new St. Anne’s. Sr. Alice stayed alone in one of the houses at St. Mary’s until Nell Carbin, SHCJ (M. M. Kentigern) came to join her, and classes began in two borrowed rooms in St. Mary’s Primary School. Sr. Alice Coyle, SHCJ eventually arrived, and by the time Sr. Alice left, five years later, a convent had been built beside the newly constructed St. Anne’s Secondary School.

Familiar Places…Familiar Faces
After so many years away, Sr. Alice was happy to be closer to her aging mother while she served as principal at Holy Child Academy in Drexel Hill, Pa. After recovering from surgery, she was assigned to teach for two years at our Lady of Humility School in Zion, Ill. She then returned to St. Edward’s in Philadelphia, Pa. until she heard of the need for nursing staff at New Sharon in Rosemont, Pa. She offered to be trained as a nurse. At age 55, Sr. Alice went to Hahnemann University and studied for her associate’s degree to become a Registered Nurse.

After graduation in 1983, she worked in a hospital for a year to gain more experience before assuming her responsibilities at New Sharon. Sr. Alice enjoyed her work there for five years and then served at Marydale, a retirement village in Newark, Del., sponsored by the Archdiocese of Wilmington. Here she ministered to the many needs of the residents with loving care.

After eight years, Sr. Alice was asked to assume responsibility for the Sisters of the Holy Child living at Haverford Estates, a retirement facility near Bryn Mawr, Pa. Ten elderly SHCJ, needing physical assistance, were scheduled to live there because the infirmary was filled to capacity. Sr. Alice found the management most cooperative in giving up a room to be used as a chapel. Several Augustinians and a Jesuit, Fr. Al Jenneman, agreed to come for Mass several times a week. As their numbers dwindled, a member of the Society’s American Province Leadership Team became the contact person there.

Click here to contact Sr. Alice Penrose (M. M. Dermot).

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