In trying to describe something of who Patrica Orban was, and what she meant to us, the Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions, I am reminded of the film The Sound of Music, and the efforts of the nuns in that movie to describe Maria. “Oh, how to describe a woman like Patricia?” I join the nuns in the movie in saying: “How do you keep a wave upon the sand?” “How do you hold a moonbeam in your hand?” Nonetheless, with the help of poet Mary Oliver, I will try to convey a sense of who Patricia was to us. Denise Kuyp will read Mary Oliver’s words:

When death comes
like the hungry bear in autumn;
when death comes
like an iceberg between the shoulder blades,

Death came to Patricia suddenly “like a hungry bear in autumn”. On November 8th, she was dancing with her Indigenous friends one moment, and lying in the snow near a bus stop at the next moment. Told she had 1-2 days to live, Patricia lived 6 days.

When death comes, “I want to step through the door full of curiosity, wondering:
what is it going to be like, that cottage of darkness?
And therefore I look upon everything
as a brotherhood and a sisterhood,
and I think of each life as a flower, as common
as a field daisy, and as singular,
and each body a lion of courage, and something
precious to the earth.

While none of us knows “the day or the hour” of our death, I think that if Patricia had choreographed her death, it would have been very similar to what it was: living out her commitment to reconciliation, in the company of people she loved, being found/rescued by strangers, and dying surrounded by the love of Sisters, family and friends.

When it’s over, I want to say: all my life
I was a bride married to amazement. …
I don’t want to find myself sighing and frightened,
or full of argument.
I don’t want to end up simply having visited this world.

Patricia didn’t simply visit this world, she engaged with life, in all its beauty and squalor. The ebb and flow of the music that was Patricia, the wonder and gratitude, anxiety and discouragement, laughter and compassion that marked her days, shaped her character.

Returning to The Sound of Music, and what to say about a woman named Patricia. I would say this – to Patricia and to all here present:

“You, Patricia, were truly ‘an asset to the Abbey’. We your Sisters grieve your passing. You shone like a gem in a five and dime store. We hope you got there safe. We miss you. And we count on your spirit continuing with us, over the next horizon, into the next new learning, toward the next broken heart.”