Biography

Veronica was born in Bradford in the north of England in 1936, the eldest of four children. The family was very involved in their parish and continued when they moved to Darlington during the war.

She was educated by the Daughters of Charity in Darlington but when she met the Daughters of Jesus she decided that was the place for her. She was sent to France for her noviciate and made her first religious profession in 1957.

On returning to England she taught first in Abbey Wood, south-east London, then in High Wycombe. After teacher training at Digby Stuart College in London she continued in education for the rest of her professional life, along the way obtaining a degree in English while teaching full-time. She was a very gifted teacher both of English and of Religious education, as well as having a gift for music.

After a few years spent in a parish foundation in Darlington, in 1979 with Sr Maureen Quinn they made a foundation in St Joseph’s parish, Birtley, north-east England, when she spent the rest of her life. She was much loved as a teacher until retirement and subsequently was devoted in her service of the parish, establishing prayer groups, preparing liturgies, encouraging spiritual formation, organising special ministers of Communion and Communion to the sick and housebound, as well as preparing children for the sacraments. Her gift for preparing liturgies was also much appreciated by the sisters of the English province to which she also brought her computer technology skills and produced beautiful leaflets. Her dislike of travelling prevented her from fulfilling her full potential in the province, but she remained a faithful and loyal member of the province, attending all assemblies and doing various secretarial tasks for us.

Death came to her suddenly and unexpectedly, a pulmonary thrombosis, on the morning of 13^th January. Her funeral in Birtley was a triumph with over 200 people present from many of the places where she had worked and many people whom she had helped. She was buried in Rickmansworth among other sisters, enabling the sisters of the province to take part in the requiem Mass.

May she rest in peace.