“Only God matters. And because only God matters, everything matters.”

These words of Fr. Thomas Keating capture something essential about the life of Imelda Agnes Grimes, RNDM. Imelda lived from a place of deep awareness that God mattered deeply to her, and that she mattered to God. This conviction grounded her gentleness, her humour, her attentiveness to others, and her efforts to be present in every moment.

Imelda died peacefully at Santa Maria Senior Citizens Home in Regina on October 19, 2025, one day after her 95th birthday. She went to Santa Maria four years ago as a “palliative patient”. So when she finally made her move, it is comforting to imagine Imelda smiling warmly as she waved goodbye to all of us and to all that she loved on earth, on such a memorable date!

Early Life and Sacred Heart Academy

Born in Lampman, Sk, on October 18, 1930, Imelda was the twelfth of fourteen children of Thomas Henry Grimes and Anna Philomena (Brasseur) Grimes. She had an older sister, Sr. Mary John de Brebeuf RNDM who died in 1939.

Imelda attended a country school until age 14, then moved to Sacred Heart Academy in Regina to complete her final two years of high school. After graduation, she spent a year in Vancouver with her sister-in-law in what she described as “a vain attempt to shake off the niggling feeling about becoming a sister.” She would later laugh at the futility of that West-Coast-escape. At age 18, she returned to Sk and entered the Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions. She made first vows in 1951, a public profession of what became a lifelong journey of service, prayer, and commitment to God, and to the RNDM mission.

University of Saskatchewan and Teaching

Imelda completed her Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Education degrees at the University of Saskatchewan in 1968. Her early years of teaching in Lebret and Saskatoon revealed her ability to connect with primary school children. She later taught older pupils in Wolseley, and Winnipeg, and secondary students at Marian High School in Regina. All together, Imelda served nineteen years in school classrooms. Her quiet strength, compassion, deep faith, and marvellous sense of humour are still remembered by her former students.

Pastoral and Leadership Roles

Beyond teaching, Imelda’s gifts were called forth in pastoral and leadership roles. She served as co-director of the Lay Ministries Program in the Archdiocese of Regina and as a pastoral associate in Lebret—ministries she cherished for the opportunities they offered to accompany adults in faith. Her pastoral availability was rooted in authenticity. She loved helping others discover how God was at work in their lives.

Within the RNDM Congregation, she served as Local Community Leader, Formation Director in both Regina and Ottawa, Province Councillor, and Provincial Leader from 1998 to 2004. Those who lived or worked with her remember her as a prayerful and joyful woman whose presence brought unity, vitality, and wisdom to community life. One of her former novices recalls her with deep gratitude for her steady guidance and humanity.

In 1993, Imelda completed a Master’s degree in Pastoral Studies at the Institute for Spiritual Leadership at the University of Chicago, enriching her understanding of spirituality and deepening the contemplative dimension that increasingly shaped her life.

Love of Music

Imelda loved music. Additionally, she had a beautiful singing voice and contributed her voice generously to parish and community choirs. She loved good liturgy, good liturgical music, and the camaraderie that singing together creates. For many years she was a faithful member of the choir at Christ the King Parish in Regina. At her requiem Mass, members of that choir turned out in strength to accompany her in death.

Final Years and Legacy

In her final years, communication with Imelda became increasingly limited, and yet her presence remained strikingly communicative. A visit this past July offered a last lesson in the contemplative heart of her spirituality. Sitting together in silence—hands lightly touching, Imelda with eyes closed and a peaceful countenance—the room felt full of a quiet, mysterious grace. In that stillness came a final teaching from Imelda, wordlessly but unmistakably:

Every room in this house is a tabernacle.

Every room in this home—every space, every life, every moment—holds the presence of God.

Sister Imelda Agnes Grimes (AKA Mary Aquinas in religion, Mogey and Sr. Imelody by children in her life) lived with gratitude and openness, recognizing each new experience, no matter how difficult, as a gift. Eventually. She also knew there was no such thing as “cheap grace” and was willing to do the personal work required to move through “stuck” places. We miss her care and kindness, her interest in our lives, her unique vitality in community, her unassuming but always steady presence.

Imelda knew that she mattered to God, she mattered to us, and we mattered to her. She helped us recognize how deeply everything matters when viewed through the lens of love.