Our Supporters
My mom, Jean, raised three children herself after my father died of a sudden heart attack at 44. She was able to keep her home through hard work and determination. In her later years, her family supported her – she was in her home until she was 97! That is when it changed. She fell in her bathroom and was alone. Fortunately she had Victoria Lifeline and the responders were there within minutes – they had to break through the bathroom window to get her out! She had no injuries but, being cautious, they took her to the hospital where they discovered she had COVID.
And that, my friends, begins the journey. Our whole family got COVID and weren’t able to see her. Mom got better and was transferred to Seven Oaks Hospital, but after a lengthy stay, it was determined she would not be returning home and we needed to choose personal care homes. First answer…..Holy Family. My mom’s sister, Nellie, had lived there for four years. We visited Auntie Nellie and got to know the facility and took part in some activities. It was a no-brainer.
My father-in-law, Ed, also recently relocated to Holy Family after a fall. He and his children chose Holy Family because of the Ukrainian culture. He was also fortunate to get placed immediately. When Ed was in first grade, he only spoke Ukrainian and Polish and failed that first year because of language issues. But he went on to do extremely well, completing a Masters of Social Work! Dad is very religious and can go to church regularly at the Home, which is of extreme importance to him.
It is great having my mom and my father-in-law in the same care home.
We appreciate all the staff who make it work at Holy Family. From the front desk who always open the door for me because I can’t remember a code, to the cleaning staff, cooks, recreation staff, medical aids, nurses, physios and physicians, Sisters, priests and volunteers... We are thankful you continue to work and support our loved ones.
On behalf of our family, I would like to thank everyone attending Black Tie Bingo for their contribution to Holy Family. It is a very special place.
BINGO TO ME STANDS FOR:
Under the B: Be kind
Under the I: Be interested in everyone
Under the N: Let go of negative thoughts
Under the G: Feel free to give, even if it is just a smile
Under the O: Think of others.
Life has no guarantees. Each day is a gift. Treat each other with kindness.
Our family is thankful to be part of Holy Family.
-Lydia and Ian, grateful family
Bel Acres Golf and Country Club Winnipeg MB
Clear Lake Golf Course
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“I can’t wait to go home.”
My heart broke a little when my Mom said that from her hospital bed in September.
You see, my siblings and I made the painful but necessary decision this year to help our parents move from their home of 58 years – the only home they’d known together – into a nursing home.
We had all done our very best to help them stay healthy at home as absolutely long as possible. But in December 2022, Mom was facing end-of-life care for congestive heart failure, and Dad needed 24/7 specialized care for dementia.
And now, months later, she said she wanted to go back.
“To Holy Family, silly,” she said with a laugh. “Where else?”
Now that they are at Holy Family, we don’t worry about whether Dad might hurt himself because he’s confused and upset, or if Mom has run out of breath.
We also don’t worry about either of them falling in the tub or shower. But we do wish bathing was a little more home-like.
That’s why our family is so excited about this year’s Festival of Lights campaign.
If you think about it, bathrooms are sanctuaries where some of our most private activities take place. But when you live in a place like Holy Family, despite everyone’s best efforts, “sanctuary” is not exactly a word you would use to describe the tub rooms.
Loved ones who live at Holy Family Home deserve a quiet, private, comfortable space to bathe. Lifts and other tools are a reality to address safety concerns, mobility issues and agitation. But the environment itself can still be beautiful and peaceful.
With your help, the tub rooms in Building A will be renovated with new, state-of-the-art tubs. All tub rooms in Buildings A and C will have privacy curtains, new fixtures and cabinetry, as well as clever murals that make the space look and feel more like home, or a spa, or a calm retreat.
But the part I think I’m most excited about? Instead of small, sort of scratchy hospital towels that are currently used, every person who lives at Holy Family will have oversized bath-sheets – warmed in a towel-warmer! – for just a little more comfort. To feel a little more at home.
Because Holy Family IS Home. Mom said it herself.
While we’re not at our childhood home in Transcona any more, we are all looking forward to celebrating our first Christmas together at Holy Family. It seems appropriate for the season, because I have experienced first-hand that angels walk on this Earth.
I’m convinced they work at Holy Family Home.
Will you join my family in making sure Holy Family IS Home for all of our loved ones? We need to raise at least $90,000 to renovate the tub rooms, and your gift would wrap my Mom or Dad in warmth and love. We hope we can count on your compassion and generosity.
Your gift of $250, $100, $25 or whatever you can share will make a huge difference to people like my Mom and Dad. And maybe yours too.
On behalf of our entire family, the Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate, the staff and volunteers at Holy Family Home, we wish you and yours a blessed and peaceful Christmas, filled with hope, comfort, warmth and joy.
Merry Christmas,
Jolene Hall
Holy Family Home Board of DirectorsGrateful daughter of Maureen and Raymond Johnson
This is a statement that has become very real in Sister Charlene Belay’s life. Over twenty years ago she had the notion that she wanted to be a nurse. However, the timing was not right. She was afraid that she did not have what it takes. God had another plan for her, one that would surround her with a loving community that is encouraging and supportive. Through her trust in God, this call to serve others as a nurse is now becoming a reality. In a few months Sister Charlene will be completing the License in Practical Nursing Program in Swan River, Manitoba. Currently she is doing her Senior Practicum at Holy Family Home. “This ministry of working with the residents and staff has been a wonderful experience especially during this time of pandemic. To be able to be present to the residents at a time when their loved ones are not able to visit has been a humbling life-giving experience. This is God’s plan to enable me to be in this ministry at this time.” Sister Charlene is enrolled in LPN program in northern Manitoba, which has taken her away from living daily community life with the Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate. Coming back to Winnipeg to do her practicum has been a real coming home for her. She has missed her Sisters, and has been filled with joy to be living in community with them again. Sister Charlene entered the Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate in 1993 but took a leave in 2000. She returned to the community in 2007 and made her final profession and commitment as a Sister Servants of Mary Immaculate in August 2015.
It has been 20 years since the seeds of sisterhood were first planted in Emily Schietzsch.
Reading through a book on the lives of the saints, 12-year-old Emily discovered a world of courageous martyrs, rigorous ascetics, and the pious devotion of consecrated virgins. From that moment her faith was set afire; she desired a life of total devotion to God.
Now at 32, Sister Emily is preparing to profess the final vows that will permanently confirm her as a Sister Servant of Mary Immaculate.
“It’s starting to sink in – I’ll be a Sister forever,” said Schietzsch, who will be the youngest Sister Servant in all of Canada.
“I’ve lived this vocation for nine years, so in some ways I’m just continuing to develop a lifelong journey I’m already on. In another way, I’m finally saying ‘forever.’ I’m not saying, ‘God I will serve you today, I’m serving you for tomorrow, or for one more year.’ Now it’s ‘God, I’m yours completely and totally forever ? no matter what happens.’”
“I know that it won’t always be easy, I know I will struggle at times, but I really do want to be God’s forever.”
Sister Emily is scheduled to profess her final vows on Aug. 10 at the parish of her childhood — St. Josaphat’s Ukrainian Catholic Cathedral in downtown Edmonton. It’s also the parish where she was first introduced to the religious community she would one day join.
The Sisters Servants of Mary Immaculate (SSMI) are a Ukrainian order founded in 1882, and their presence in Edmonton dates back to 1902. It was their charism of service — in parishes, nursery homes, hospitals, schools and social services —that particularly drew Schietzsch into their mission.
“When I started thinking more seriously about being a sister, I started researching a bunch of communities, but none of them captured my heart quite in the way the Sisters Servants did,” she said. “There was something about being balanced between prayer and service that really captured me. The contemplative tradition didn’t quite speak to me as much; I wanted to be out and among the people serving and helping wherever the need was the greatest.”
In those early teen years Schietzsch grew into a more intimate prayer life and personal relationship with God. As that deeper spiritual life was blossoming, her discovery of the lives of the saints brought her faith to a new level.
“As I got to know God, I wanted to do more for Him,” she said. “Reading the lives of these people who gave up everything for God, I really became enamoured by that.”
“The saints that really stood out to me were the young female martyrs and other women of the early Church that really went against the grain of the society they were living in. Because in the Church today we too have to go against the grain to be persons of faith. To live your faith, you have to have the courage and the vigour that these people did.”
“And I knew that being a sister was a far more viable idea than being a martyr,” she added with a laugh.
By age 14, Schietzsch was already feeling certain that God was calling her to sisterhood. Even so, she decided to continue her discernment past high school graduation. She earned a degree in psychology at the University of Alberta and spent a year working with adults with special needs.
But the vision of a life in the blue habit of the Sisters Servants never left her mind, and in 2010, at age 23, she entered the SSMI formation house in Winnipeg for her postulancy and novitiate.
Her decision surprised many of her peers. Some friends were supportive, some who were not religious were shocked and dismayed, and others were worried she was being naïve in taking such a step at a young age. But the support of her parents never waned.
“When I was a shy teenager, my mom would arrange for me to go talk to the sisters at our parish and ask questions,” she said. “My dad would always emphasize ‘If you’re happy, I’m happy. I want what’s best for you.’”
With nine years devoted to sisterhood, it has been a long journey of discernment, prayer and toil. Along with her years of study, daily prayer and meditation, she has worked with the sisters across British Columbia and in Winnipeg and Toronto.
She has served in Winnipeg’s Holy Family Nursing Home, done inner-city ministry with the Yorkton Redemptorists, studied and worked with special needs adults, and has helped archive the sisters’ history at their provincial home in Toronto.
Schietzsch currently serves as an education assistant at the Immaculate Heart of Mary Elementary School in Winnipeg, the last in Canada still run by the Sisters Servants.
Final vows typically come five years after a Sister Servant makes her first vows, but Schietzsch requested an additional sixth year to discern further and pray over her calling. At the time, she was struggling to discern whether she measured up to a life permanently and forever devoted to serving God.
“I think my greatest battles, as they often are, are internal battles,” she said. “There’s always been the fear of ‘Am I enough for God?’ The things, the personality, and everything that goes along with me — is it enough to do this and live this life for God?
“I know God is all loving, all forgiving, and He accepts me as I am even when I don’t accept myself. But there’s one thing with saying that and another thing with actually experiencing and knowing that. I needed that extra time to pray over these doubts and ask God if these thoughts were true.”
That additional time in prayer only reassured her. She came to realize that what mattered most was knowing that God called her to religious life, not whether she felt perfect enough for it.
“That love and desire I had to serve God when I was 12 is still there; it’s maybe a less teenaged version of it, but it’s still there,” she said.
“And I know that God doesn’t call me to be ready, God calls me to come. Jesus said to his disciples ‘Come to me,’ and he says the same to all of us. Even with all of the baggage, all of the gifted and not so gifted parts of myself, He loves and accepts me just as I am.”
She sees her final vows as a reciprocation of that unwavering love:
“God’s love is eternal, and by me saying my vow to God — poverty, chastity, and obedience in perpetuity forever — I, in some miraculous way, get to participate in the eternity of God as well.”
As the youngest sister in her religious community, Schietzsch knows the reality of declining vocations — particularly in highly secularized countries like Canada. While she may be an anomaly among her age group, she firmly believes that many young people are still being called to religious life.
“That desire for truth, life and God is always there in all people,” she said. “It’s just when there’s so many things going on, so many distractions … it’s difficult to find God in this world of turmoil. People have so many options and so many things at their fingertips today, it’s overwhelming. Whether you’re involved with the Church or not, with so many possibilities it’s hard to see God in anything.”
Her advice to anyone trying to discern God’s will in their lives is not only to find time for silence and contemplation outside the hustle of modern life, but also to seek relationships with others that go beyond the artificial and often-isolating world of social media.
“There’s always that barrier in the online world. Now people spend more time with friends online than in person, and it can take away opportunity to really know people heart-to-heart,” said Schietzsch.
“That makes things difficult when it comes to experiencing God too. God cannot be understood through saying ‘Alexa, teach me about God.’ You need that heart-to-heart connection. If you don’t spend that time in prayer, you will never know when God speaks. But if you keep your faith, keep looking and keep knocking, God will find a way.”
She is looking forward to returning to her roots and celebrating her final vows in the church of her childhood.
“It’s quite unique in this day and age to have a celebration of final vows. It’s not something people see all the time,” she said. “I want to celebrate this not just with my sisters, but with my whole church family. The best way to do that is in the parish where I grew up.”
I couldn’t wait for my first day at IHMS.
You see, as the youngest of six children, I had watched my older brothers and sisters get ready for school every day. I imagined what their days were like. The friends they were making. The games they were playing. All the interesting things they were learning!
In the meantime, I had to content myself with being the little sister. I happily sat in the audience at Christmas concerts. Cheered at games with my mom and dad, watching Maria, Chris, John, Nick and Anna-Marie play sports. Proudly clapped for the achievements of my brothers and sisters at end-of-year award ceremonies.
And now it was my turn!
I arrived and got to take my place in the kindergarten classroom, which was filled with tiny chairs and desks (just my size!), books that would take us on adventures, arts and crafts supplies that would fuel our imaginations, and Sister Anne, whose calm and loving presence reassured us that we were in the very best place.
Do you remember how you felt on your first day of school? I bet if you think hard enough, you can put yourself right there.
Over the years, there were many concerts, liturgies, science fairs, field trips, competitions, sporting events, cultural activities, and award ceremonies.
Some of my most cherished memories as a young student at IHMS were learning about and experiencing some of our wonderful Ukrainian traditions - like writing pysanky with Mrs. Wdowiak, baking paska with Mrs. Lukie, and learning Ukrainian folk songs with Pani Stanowych.
Most importantly, my time at IHMS was instrumental in the development of my profound love for God and our Ukrainian Catholic faith. I was given many opportunities to receive the sacraments, to pray together as a school community, and to learn about our faith from so many dedicated staff, Sisters and priests at the school. It is thanks to the many good values and beliefs I learned and experienced at IHMS that I have become the person I am today.
Fast forward some 20 years, and I was filled with anticipation because I couldn’t wait for our son Sam’s first day at IHMS. My husband and I made the decision to send him because we wanted him to benefit from the enriching environment, rooted in deep faith and our beautiful Ukrainian culture that we had experienced.
If you have visited the school recently, you will know that spirit is alive and well. No matter how much the world changes, you can count on a solid foundation at IHMS that helps raise compassionate people of character.
