Centenarian Sister Jean Believes Good Will Come Out Of Pandemic

Chicago IL

09 December, 2020

3:59 PM

Description

CHICAGO —Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt is still the same beloved nun you remember from the NCAA Tournament and Loyola-Chicago's improbable run to the Final Four. At age 101, she is living through her second pandemic with a level of positivity she learned as a child that keeps her preaching an optimistic message that's served her well all her life: We're all going to be OK. If we're going to believe anyone during a year filled so much uncertainty, why wouldn't it be Sister Jean? Born during the 1919 pandemic flu, Sister Jean has weathered a lifetime of storms and overcome dark moments — the tragic end of Loyola's 2018 national semifinal loss to Michigan, among them — without losing faith or giving up hope. Every day during the coronavirus crisis, Sister Jean is up at 5 a.m. for morning prayers before conducting her life's work via Zoom, a steady stream of emails and recorded pregame prayers for her beloved Ramblers from the confines of her downtown apartment.Like a lot of folks, Sister Jean has both developed a Zoom habit and grown weary of life without in-person interaction. The coronavirus pandemic is certainly not the first national crisis that the longtime and beloved Loyola academic advisor and resident chaplain has witnessed firsthand. But considering the toll that the pandemic has taken not only on the hundreds of thousands of Americans who have died because of COVID-19, but also on Sister Jean's ability to interact in person with Loyola students and the college basketball team with which she has become synonymous, this global emergency has taken on a different feel. Amid the weekly coronavirus tests, Sister Jean remains busy with a daily ritual of spending hours of responding to emails, which she answers for hours after she prays and watches a virtual morning Mass that originates from Toronto's Loretto Abbey, Sister Jean tends to much of her daily campus business these days either by phone or video conference before enjoying an afternoon escape in an episode of "Jeopardy!" The student meetings, which she would much prefer to attend on campus, are —like the 20 weekly coronavirus tests Sister Jean has endured in recent months — simply part of Sister Jean's new COVID reality. Rather than holding court in a popular campus office that has sat vacant since the pandemic began in March, Sister Jean — who turned 101 in August — remains confined to an apartment at an independent living facility in downtown Chicago near Loyola's Water Town campus. She longs to return to school as the face-to-face interactions with students and fellow faculty members are among what Sister Jean misses most, she acknowledged on Wednesday in a 45-minute conversation with Patch in which her omnipresent, wry sense of humor remained present. Her lightheartedness began with a question about how she is feeling, which at 101 isn't unheard of and which she is asked regularly by visiting physicians who administer her weekly COVID-19 tests. "They'll come in and ask, 'Sister Jean, how are you feeling?' And I tell them I feel great — probably better than you do," Sister Jean said of the exchange that precedes her regular coronavirus tests, all of which she has passed with flying colors. Sister Jean reached international celebrity status in 2018 as the then-98-year-old team chaplain for her beloved Loyola Ramblers, who came within a victory of playing for a NCAA men's basketball national championship. She has remained in great demand ever since, routinely being asked to pose for photos, to deliver invocations at events, including Loyola home basketball games, where she also meets privately with members of coach Porter Moser's players. Of late, some request a Zoom meeting with the good sister, who politely declines given the volume of video conferences she attends for Loyola matters and instead asks if conversations can take place over the telephone. Sister Jean Dolores Schmidt, who turned 101 in August, believes good will come out of the coronavirus pandemic, which she sees as one of the unprecedented events of her lifetime. (Photo by Tom Pennington/Getty Images) These days, pregame prayers are delivered either by video conference or by phone, which is all part of the changes that have come with COVID life, Sister Jean said. But in the months since the pandemic began, Sister Jean has remained fervent in the belief that some good will come from the global health emergency even as it has entered its ninth month and will continue into 2021 as health experts await the release of a vaccine. Yet, as COVID fatigue has set in across the country, Sister Jean remains hopeful as her prayers for the health and safety of others continue. Her optimism cannot be fully explained, she admitted in a telephone interview Wednesday, but can be attributed to her late mother, who always encouraged her children to find the positives of every situation in life — no matter what. The lesson is one that Sister Jean insists is important to remember in 2020, when so many have experienced heartache while losing a sense of normalcy in a time of facial coverings, social distancing and a lack of social interaction. Yet as Christmas approaches, Sister Jean preaches a message of childlike faith while she to deal with a remote style of living that has become all too familiar in these unprecedented times. Still, the words of her mother continue to resonate. "My mom would always say that someone else is always worse off than you are and you can't be grumbling like that," Sister Jean recalled on Wednesday. "She told us to always look on the bright side of life, always. I think about all of these awful things that are happening, but I want to look at the good things. I know sometimes, it's easy to say, 'Everything is bad' but no, not everything is bad. We want to work on the bad (things) and make it good, but we have to believe that something good is going to come out of this. … I think we're going to be better. "We have to think good is going to come out of this, but we have to do some good to make that happen. I shouldn't just say, 'my neighbor has to do that' — no, I have to do that." After the pandemic ends, Sister Jean envisions a society when people are nicer to one another, think better of each other. Although she acknowledges that there is much work to yet accomplish in terms of social and racial injustice, Sister Jean remains optimistic that life can get better but that it will come down to individuals to not only looking out for one another, but to look for the good in others in order for healing to take place. For now, Sister Jean continues to pray for those around her — both those that she knows and those that she doesn't. She routinely receives requests for prayer for health and safety and that people would not feel the long-term effects of the pandemic, which she realizes has taken a toll on people as they long for a sense of life as they once knew it. Still, even nine months in, those requesting guidance and prayers from Sister Jean ask her to pray for perseverance as they await better days ahead. But like everything else in 2020, expectations — Sister Jean insists — will require some adjustment. "I think that 'normal' is going to be different," Sister Jean said. "I can't foresee the future at all. I don't have a crystal ball or a magic wand but I think we're going to learn to live more simply, I think we're going to be more respectful to authority and that we're going to have to listen, and be willing to compromise more. So it will be different. "But I think we're going to get back with our friends and begin to smile more and start talking to one another again. That will help us a lot."