On the 23rd of February 2023 Anne Sénéchal, animator at the Mother House of Kermaria, left us. The Sisters of the Pierre Noury Community were deeply moved by her death and wanted to express their emotion.
Each one of us, Sisters and members of the staff, remember one or other moment of Anne’s life among us. A book in her honour has been circulated throughout the house and bears witness to all these good memories. Here are some of the significant expressions :
“I will keep your smile and your kindness, your dynamism.”
“You gave so much of yourself.”
“A life-giving attention.”
A life-giving animator
Anne was concerned with finding and inventing activities that awakened the attention, and were lifegiving, especially for the more fragile sisters.
– “You had the art of bringing everyone together. You sought to comfort, to arouse life,
to encourage.”
– “You took care of everyone, especially the most fragile, your patience was admirable.”
– “You had a real respect for each individual.”
– “Your aim was to please, to make every day a happy day and a source of progress.”
She also showed this attention to her colleagues.
“We already miss your smiling face and your good humour.”
“We had exchanges rich in humanity.”
“You were a caring colleague.”
Our farewell to Anne
On Friday the 3rd of March, the day of Anne’s funeral, the 11am mass in Kermaria was celebrated for her. Colleagues and former colleagues joined the Sisters for this tribute.
At the beginning of the celebration, Sr Marie-Thérèse Quéré invited us to make a beautiful wreath out of all this life of service to others, and to place it on the altar, in an offering full of gratitude: gratitude for all that we had lived with Anne, gratitude to God who put her on our human path. We entrusted her to God who is full of love and tenderness.
We also prayed for each of the members of her family who were experiencing this too rapid departure, in the pain of separation. May the Lord give them his strength for today and tomorrow.
As the funeral was to take place in nearby Plumelin, the coffin would inevitably pass by Kermaria. We therefore asked that the hearse pass through Kermaria, her place of work. Sisters and staff members had lined up on either side of the entrance to Kermaria and in front of the chapel and threw flower petals as the coffin passed. It was an intense moment of emotion and communion!
A small delegation of Sisters and members of the Perrine Samson Association were able to attend the funeral in the church in Plumelin.
Goodbye Anne. Thank you for all that you have been and done among us!
The Sisters of the Pierre Noury Community,
Kermaria, France
The testimony of a Sister of the Pierre Noury community
“Anne was for me a link with my family in Naizin. Anne and her husband collaborated with my niece and her husband and her last words to me were: “When is Rachel coming back? “ I replied: “Soon“.
Anne was very welcoming to my sister-in-law from Paris and her son when they came to see me.
Anne did a lot for me personally, to get me back on my feet. She made me a mandala enthusiast and made me believe that I was good at drawing. As some mandalas were difficult to make, she would help me in a very discreet way by suggesting the colour to be used. I could see that she was very attentive to all those who had difficulties.
She was very generous in bringing fruit from home, such as apples to make compote. When the apples were very hard and I had an arthritis attack, so making it difficult to cut up the apples, Anne would discreetly cut them into quarters so that I could then cut them into small pieces. I always felt that she wanted to make me feel valued. I miss her very much.
When the psychologist came to tell me that she had lost one of her colleagues, I had no idea it was Anne. I burst into tears when she told me and provoked the same reaction in her, because they were very close.
I asked to go and say goodbye to her when her coffin passed by Kermaria before her funeral in Plumelin. She will realise that she was everything to me.
T.S.
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