THE
P RTAL
May 2016
Page 12
Sister Wendy Renate
Eulogy given at Sr Wendy Renate’s Funeral by Sr Jane Louise on
15th April 2016, the Chapel of Our Lady of Reconciliation, Walsingham
A
s some of you will know, I am Sr Jane Louise and I have had the unforgettable experience of knowing
and living with Sr Wendy Renate (spelt with an E) for the past 20 or 21 years. What can I say? She got
away with murder! (Not to be taken literally you understand.)
Sister Wendy in the High Street, Walsingham, in 2009
She was not the easiest person to live with and could
drive you round the bend, but that’s who she was and
we couldn’t help but love her for all that. My first
memories of Sr Wendy are when I first visited the
Priory of Our Lady, here in Walsingham, back in our
Anglican days. I had come to discern my vocation
with the Sisters of St Margaret, arriving just in time for
the evening meal in the refectory.
Photograph: Stephen Parkinson
bus station, Sr Wendy came out of the house to wave
goodbye with a rather sheepish look on her face and
Mother Teresa explained to me that this was her way
of saying sorry for behaving badly! Needless to say,
I waved back with a similarly sheepish look on my
face and that was the beginning of a long and lasting
friendship.
Sr Wendy was very good at making cunning plans
– usually of how to get out of doing something she
didn’t want to do. In fact, she openly admitted to
me one day that whenever she wanted to sneak out
of the house to go and visit someone in the village
when she wasn’t supposed to, she would make a point
of walking out of the door backwards, just in case
she bumped into a Sister and then she would put on
the emergency brakes and pretend that she was just
coming in! Believe me; I have seen her in action. Sr
Wendy and I shared a faith journey from our Anglican
There were several moments like this over the roots into the Catholic Church which she had desired
weekend, but one thing that touched me at the end for so many years.
of this particular visit was that when Mother Teresa
was pulling out of the car park to take me back to the
She was so thrilled to be Catholic and was
We had all settled down at the tables and were
making light conversation as you do, when this other
Sister came storming in, looking like thunder and
complaining bitterly about (sorry Fathers) the priests
she had encountered in the Shrine Sacristy and all the
delays they created in getting the Mass ready and other
such things. I recall the embarrassment of the other
Sisters, who went on to tell me, don’t worry, that’s
Sister Wendy, she’ll be alright in a minute!
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