Cécile Marie Blanche Delorme was born into a proud French-Canadian family, as snow thawed on the prairie fields of St. Joseph MB, in the Spring of 1935. The timing of her birth, around the Spring equinox, may account for the deep attraction Cécile had with creation – from the smallest insects, and most delicate flowers, to the magnificence of stars, and the grace of birds in flight. Cécile experienced the healing power of God in a unique way in creation.
This bent towards creation found a solid support for Cécile in the writings of Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, especially his meditation “The Mass on the World”. From time to time, Cécile shared her wonder and joy in this reflection, and had saved a French copy, which we found among her retreat journals after she died. The “Prayer of Final Surrender” in your memorial card is from Teilhard, and seems so appropriate for her requiem.
Cécile’s hands were rarely still. Her hands that once guided children’s pencils and papers in elementary school, later cared for the sick and dying, and crafted striking works of art in wood, in wool, in fabrics of many kinds. To use many metaphors: Cécile’s hands …
- carved wood with the precision of a surgeon,
- delivered breech babies with the acuity of a sculptor,
- knit baby layettes and adult sweaters with the dexterity of a magician,
- sewed with the creativity of a designer,
- or tapped out the rhythm of a tune as she listened to favourite pieces of music.
Cécile’s creative talents were both a source of personal enjoyment, and a way to connect with and bring happiness to others.
While I never heard Cécile say this, it seems to me she personified the old knitting maxim that life is a lot like knitting:
“When you drop a stitch, you just pick it up and keep going.”
No matter what the obstacles, Cécile kept going.
Cécile had a particular gift for being with those who were dying and attended to many patients and RNDM Sisters during their last days. Through those long nights of simply accompanying another human who was exiting this earth, I think Cécile developed a familiarity with death.
I say this because I understand that three days before Cécile died (on Monday November 27) as her journey into death was unfolding, and her physical strength waning, in the presence of family members, Cécile was calling out for her parents, and saying,
“I am not afraid.”
I believe Cécile met death unafraid, and that she now lives from the center of her being, the place where what was scattered in her becomes connected once again in the presence of God’s love, a love that she can now experience fully.
In death, Cécile has become one with Creator and with the whole of Creation she so loved. I believe that God has set Cécile’s hands free and set her feet to dancing!
A biography of Cécile’s life is available on our website here:
Veronica Dunne is a Sister of our Lady of the Missions (RNDM), who has primarily worked as an educator and counsellor in institutional and community based settings in Canada. She has also served with the RNDMs outside of Canada in Senegal, Peru, and Aotearoa New Zealand.
A 2002 Doctor of Ministry graduate from the University of St. Michael’s College, Toronto School of Theology at the University of Toronto, she subsequently served as director of the Doctor of Ministry program at St. Stephen’s College at the University of Alberta in Edmonton. Her current research interests are in eco-theology and cosmology, and their intersections with indigenous cosmologies and spiritualties.
She presently serves on the RNDM leadership team in Canada.
