File 12 - Circular Letters – Sister General Helen Hayes

Born: 24 December 1924 in Tichbourne, Ontario; daughter of William Hayes and Anne King; entered 21 January 1949; first vows 15 August 1951; final vows 15 August 1956; died 2 March 2013.

Although born near Kingston, Ontario, Helen grew up in British Columbia, when her family moved in 1926 to Kamloops for her father's opportunities on the railroad. A few months later when Helen was still two years old, her father died as a result of an industrial accident. The family moved to her grandparent's farm at Kingsvale, B.C. The railroad company paid for Helen's education as a boarding student at the Sisters of St. Ann's school in Kamloops. When Helen was 14, her mother remarried and the family moved to the BC interior community of Williams Lake. Helen finished her education with a commercial course at St. Ann's Academy in Vancouver and returned to Williams Lake. Although her long-term goal was teaching, she worked in the Canadian Bank of Commerce. Later as a stenographer, she joined the local branch office of the federal Department of Indian Affairs.

A member of the Redemptorist parish of Sacred Heart, she played the organ for Mass, weddings and funerals. Outside the church, she sang in an ecumenical community choir and loved to dance. With opportunities to marry, she decided to discover whether she had a religious vocation and was encouraged by her pastor, Fr. Bernard Johnson, C.Ss.R., brother of Sister Anne Johnson.

On December 8, 1948, the day Helen received word that she had been accepted by the Sisters of Service. . Two years later, Sister Hayes professed first vows in the novitiate chapel on August 15, 1951. Appointed first to the women's residence in Toronto (1951-1952), she returned to Western Canada as bookkeeper at Our Lady's Hospital in Vilna (1952-1956) until final vows in Toronto and summer music school under Monsignor J.E. Ronan, director of church music of the Toronto archdiocese. An appointment (1956-1961) at the women's residence in Winnipeg lent itself to the opportunity for her to attend Normal School (1962-1963) in that city, and to earn a teacher's certificate. Moving to Camp Morton, she taught at King Edward School No. 1 (1963-1965), bringing also her music talent to the classroom. With her guitar and teaching skills, she served in Grand Forks (1965-1969) at the correspondence school in the North Dakota Diocese of Fargo. During these years following the Second Vatican Council, she was appointed the diocese’s acting director of religious education in April 1966.

A year later, she was elected as Sister General for the first of three consecutive terms from 1974 until 1986. During her administration as part of the renewal process, the painstaking task by the entire community was undertaken to revise the original Rule and write a new constitution. With the closing of the original apostolates, 16 new missions were established, involving sisters in parishes, education, public health, and social work in Yukon, in the Maritimes, Newfoundland and Labrador, Northern Saskatchewan and Alberta. In preparing for an appointment as superior of SOS retirement residence (1987-1989), she attended corporate ministries program at the University of St. Louis, Missouri. For the next 10 years, she served in Saskatchewan, correspondence school of religion (1989-1991) in Regina, parish minister, Milestone (1991-1994) and superior of the Regina house from 1994 until it was closed in 2001. She again was elected on the General Council (1994-1998).

Returning to the Motherhouse in Toronto (2001-2010), Sister Helen edited the internal community newsletter Here and There and visited the retired sisters. Upon the sale of the Motherhouse, she moved to LaSalle Manor, where her health declined with falls and a final severe stroke. She died on March 2, 2013 in St. Michael’s Hospital. In respecting her wish for no wake, a Mass of Ressurection at LaSalle Manor was celebrated by Fr. William Fitzgerald, C.Ss.R. Sister Helen's ashes were buried in the community's plot in Mount Hope cemetery, Toronto.