By Rita McInerney, Special To The Bulletin

BLAIRSVILLE—A Franciscan for 60 years, Sister Rosemary Wickham has moved into the future.

She returned to the motherhouse of the Sisters of St. Francis of the Holy Family in Dubuque, Iowa, in late October, after 13 years as the pastoral assistant at St. Francis of Assisi Church.

She took home with her memories of clergy and people of good will in the North Georgia mountains. In her years among them she earned friendship and respect from parishioners, men and women of other denominations, and people she encountered daily. Her cheerful ministering knew no religious boundaries.

On Oct. 15, just days before she left, parishioners let her know they appreciated her presence among them. Their farewell was celebrated with gifts of prayer, words and music, at a farewell Mass in the church built and dedicated in 1996. The celebrant was the pastor, Father Balappa Selvaraj. In his homily he commended her dedication to visiting the sick and working to bring people back to the faith.

Deacon Bill Diehl, who has been appointed to continue Sister Wickham’s work, assisted at the Mass.

Five members of her family attended and brought up the gifts; sisters Helen McClain and Jean, the latter also a Franciscan; brother Tom and niece Carol McClain, came from Dubuque, while a nephew, Frank McClain, came from Florida. The parish Knights of Columbus served as escorts.

Afterward, the people planted rosemary for remembrance in the Memory Garden next to the church and entertained Sister Wickham and family members at a reception.

Back in Dubuque, she celebrated her 80th birthday Oct. 24 with her sisters and brothers, including her older brother Jay, and many nieces and nephews and began settling in at Mount St. Francis. Her quarters are bright and new. The old wing with 100 small rooms was gutted, she said, and the new addition has 50 air-conditioned rooms.

“The parish was very loving and generous to me and I will be able to furnish my room the way I want.” For her, “It was a little sad, leaving all these wonderful people.”

For Sister Wickham, her North Georgia mountain years opened her to new possibilities, unlike those she welcomed in 45 years as a teacher and principal at Catholic schools in California, Illinois and Iowa. When she came to Blairsville in 1987, she was uncertain what her role should be. Glenmary Father Bob Poandl, then the pastor, assured her she would find her niche.

First, she had to accustom herself to a new life in a small, comfortable house with a front porch and a grand view.

“She had to get used to living alone, to cooking and driving a car,” parishioner Virginia Badach said. “But her main question was, what can she do for us?”

She began teaching religion classes. Encouraged by her welcome from parishioners, she adapted the Little Rock Scripture study program “to fit the people here.” A group in Hiawassee started with eight people and soon grew to 15. A Blairsville group followed.

In her last year of teaching and serving as principal, in Arcadia, Iowa, she had taken a course on the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults. She put this to good use in starting the first RCIA program at St. Francis of Assisi.

She also led the first parish Renew program.

Sister Wickham shared with her Franciscan predecessors in the North Georgia mountains abundant love for God’s people, especially the sick and old.

She was “an inspiration” to Deacon Diehl who for five years helped her with the RCIA program and with the weekly home visits.

He will remember how her greeting, “I brought Jesus,” was answered with a smile by a parishioner homebound after brain surgery. And, he said, through her visits, the Franciscan was the “main source” of the woman’s husband becoming a Catholic.

She would attend the Saturday vigil and Sunday Masses and introduce herself to anyone she didn’t know.

“She wanted to know everyone,” the deacon said. “She was a very loving person.”

“She always had the faith, no matter what happened,” Deacon Diehl said. “The parish will try and continue the Franciscan spirituality” she exemplified.

She was one of about 10 women from churches in the area who started a local chapter of Church Women United in 1991. Gerda Jones, a member of St. Clare Episcopal Church in Blairsville, was another. The group meets three times each year. Sister Wickham served as president in 1997-98.

“Whenever we needed advice we went to her. She was a beautiful person. We’re going to miss her,” Jones said.

In May, Church Women United honored Sister Wickham with its first Valiant Woman award for outstanding dedication, leadership and service from 1991-2000.

About 25 churchwomen attended the luncheon at St. Clare’s. A certificate, inscribed plate and a pin were presented to the surprised honor guest.

Betsy Thomas, who played the “Ave Maria” as a flute solo during the farewell Mass, said her family looked up to her “as a sister in the church ... We love her and we’re going to miss her. To me she was a holy woman.”

She prepared Thomas to become a eucharistic minister and taught several of the Thomas children in CCD classes.

“She used to send me notes, on Mother’s Day and after I played the flute at Mass.” She was sensitive when the younger woman was hurt by unnecessary remarks about large families. “She often talked about how wonderful large families are.”

At the farewell Mass, Walter Scott, a parishioner, recalled events of Sister Wickham’s life, ranging from ancestors to adventures.

Both sets of great-grandparents came from Ireland. One great-grandfather fought in the Crimean War and later, after coming to America, fought in the Civil War. Sister Wickham made a trip to Ireland several years ago with a group from the parish and enjoyed traveling around the historic island.

Her initial challenge as a principal was starting a Catholic school in Crescent City, Calif. The first in the area, she was blessed to have a receptive community to work with.

After 11 years there, she moved to an inner-city school in Chicago in the mid-60s, a turbulent period with the death of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., and the street violence that accompanied the Democratic national convention there.

For the next 16 years she taught at schools in Iowa, using both teaching and principal skills.

Coming to Blairsville in 1987, she replaced Sister Lene Rubley, OFM, who had been a pupil at her first teaching post in a small country school in Iowa.

Her departure has ended the Franciscan sisters’ ministry in the North Georgia mountains. Since 1977 five members of the order served growing numbers of Catholics in the Blairsville, Cleveland and Dahlonega areas.

The other Franciscans and the years they served in North Georgia are: Sister Joan Meyer from 1977-84; Sister Rubley from 1978-87; Sister Ruth Fagan from 1983-88; and the late Sister Antonine (Toni) Kivlahan from 1983-92. Sister Jeffrey Englehardt, M.D., served in Lumpkin County in 1981-82 and Sister Veronica Bagenstof, R.N., served in Hayesville, N.C., 1983-86.

Working with Glenmary priests and later priests of the Archdiocese of Atlanta, the Franciscan women earned love and respect through lively faith sharing in their church families and in the mountain communities. They touched lives wherever they went; helping with food pantries and Habitat for Humanity, visiting the sick and the elderly, participating in peace and justice issues as the mission statement of their Dubuque community calls them to do. Their lives were a shining example to people they helped or worked with, especially many who had never before met Catholic sisters.