Sister Louise was the fifth of six children born in Canada to Joseph and Angela (Simon) Oberhoffner, who themselves were born respectively in Russia and Austria. Having come early in life to Regina her father was editor of a German language newspaper and her mother a devoted and long-lived parent and friend. Predeceased by her sister Agnes Ehmann and brothers Julius and Joseph, Louise is survived by her sister Angela Terrett, and youngest brother, David, sisters-in-laws Frankie, Frances and Doreen, and many nieces and nephews even to the fourth generation, all of whom have great love and respect for their beloved aunt.

All the children attended the Catholic Schools in Regina and later the girls found employment in the business world while the elder sons entered the military during World War II and then built successful civil careers. A year after high school Louise joined the Sisters who had taught her and was given the religious name “Mary Angela of Jesus”. Immediately after completion of novitiate she joined a band of six RNDMs to live in our new house in Saskatoon and attend Teachers’ College there.

Louise’s teaching career began in Wolseley, SK and moved along to Regina. Life was interrupted in 1960 when she contracted tuberculosis and spent some time in sanatoria in St. Boniface, Manitoba and then in Fort San, Saskatchewan. Rest and wise care soon brought recovery and in a little over a year she was back teaching in Regina and then Lebret. Throughout these early teaching years Louise was also studying by correspondence and at summer school and in 1964 obtained her B.A. degree from the University of Saskatchewan.

Life now took a new turn. Louise served a term as local superior in Winnipeg, went on to Rome for two years of theology and then became leader of our Tertian program in Rome, helping younger RNDM’s from around the world with theology and other religious studies, as well as considerable “historical study” in the rich environment of Italy.

Home to Canada and another term as local superior, a year of theological studies in Boston, and Louise went on to her next career as a pastoral worker at Christ the King Church in Regina and then as correspondent for the Prairie Messenger, another five years as local superior in Winnipeg and, in 1997, retirement back home in Regina.

Reminders of Rome were always welcome and somewhere in the midst of her busy life Louise and Sister Victoria, another Canadian in Rome, had gone to Germany to teach summer school religion to children of Canadian troops. There, as in Italy, England, and even New Zealand, where Louise went to celebrate the Jubilee of a dear friend, she traveled widely and marveled at landscapes and gardens, architecture of every era, and all the people that she met and spoke with.

Some years ago one of the Sisters wrote about her:

“Louise displays God’s gifts to her in a very gentle manner… she is able to sort out and appreciate essentials… produces beauty in decorating and in planning prayer times… her cheerful disposition attracts people… she radiates peace in every situation.”

Sister’s health had been causing concern for some time and in 2006 it was discovered she had two benign but inoperable tumours on her brain. That year she came to the Sisters’ Residence at Santa Maria Senior Citizens’ Home and by the next year had to seek nursing care for her steadily deteriorating condition.

Louise was much-loved by the caregivers at Santa Maria. Always she was gracious and grateful, ready with a smile and a kind word. For some time she could get around, first with cane, then walker and finally wheel chair, but with gentle words and an air of peace.

Sister had been failing for some weeks so we were not surprised when her nurse called us to her side shortly before 10 p.m. on May 29. Funeral services were here at Santa Maria on June 3 and Sister’s body is laid to rest beside more than 30 of our Sisters in Regina’s second cemetery. May she rest in peace.