Sister Lucy’s mission
Sister Lucy joins family members and staff for the dedication of a new bridge at Pennybyrn. The retirement center’s mission remains the same as it did when the original sisters arrived on Nov. 14, 1947: “to demonstrate God’s love for those whose lives we touch.” (Troy C. Hull | Catholic News Herald)
HIGH POINT — On her day off, Sister Lucy Hennessey comes to work anyway to inaugurate a newly built bridge spanning a creek in the woods behind Pennybyrn, the 71-acre retirement community her religious order established 78 years ago.
She stands at the center of the bridge as the Rand family officially donates the structure to Pennybyrn, where their parents loved to walk the trails and lived for more than 20 years. Although she remains silent, Sister Lucy’s presence is unmistakable – just as it is throughout the campus of 450 residents, where she is widely known for pioneering a remarkable faith-based culture of caring.
Building bridges is a central theme of Sister Lucy’s life and leadership. Through her work, she has created cultural connections between her Irish homeland and her adopted home in North Carolina. She carved a path for residents who face housing decisions as they age and their health declines. She has helped build relationships between people of her Catholic faith and other denominations. She often holds hands and prays, too, with residents who are dying, helping in their transition from this life to the eternal.
Sister Lucy arrived in North Carolina in 1975, when Pennybyrn contained just one building, a 125-bed nursing home, behind the convent where the Sisters of the Poor
Servants of the Mother of God lived and tended to residents. Over the next 50 years, Sister Lucy – and her formidable network of sisters and staff – transformed the institution into a community, where residents have a variety of housing options, countless activities, on-site healthcare and reliable caretaking as they live out their final years.
Now, Sister Lucy is leaving. She and her three compadres – Sister Mona Comaskey, Sister Gabriella Hogan and Sister Loretta O’Connor – who have guided Pennybyrn most recently have been called back to their motherhouse in London. In July, the Diocese of Charlotte will fully assume the “spiritual” sponsorship of Pennybyrn after a three-year transition plan engineered by Sister Lucy to ensure the sisters’ charism of caring remains intact in their absence.
“Sister Lucy is an inspiration. Her leadership and commitment to the mission of Pennybyrn is singular and irreplaceable,” says Monsignor Patrick Winslow, vicar general and chancellor of the diocese, who worked closely with Sister Lucy to hammer out – and execute – the transition. “Her love for God is truly reflected in her love for the people she serves.”
The sisters will not only leave behind the residents of Pennybyrn but also a staff of 450 full- and part-time workers. One of those employees, Wendy Strader, sheds tears just thinking about the sisters’ departure. “I have been here 16 years, and the sisters are all I have ever known, and it is so special coming into work every day knowing that I am going to see them. I am going to miss that,” says Strader, Pennybyrn’s development and volunteer coordinator.
Staffer Sarah Barker says the sisters “cultivated this very special spirit of compassion, hospitality and service.”
Under Sister Lucy’s watch, Pennybyrn became among the first on the East Coast to successfully implement a “household” model of care, which empowers residents with personal choices in their daily routines, so that Pennybyrn truly feels like home.
“This might be the last place they come to live, so let them live their lives in the best way they possibly can and have the right to lots of choices,” explains April Turner, household coordinator.
Residents decide when they shower, what and when they eat, how long they sleep, and what they wear. At the insistence of the sisters, Pennybyrn caters to their individualism.
Pennybyrn, the sisters say, tries to provide differentiated treatment for individual clients, and also serve as an all-in-one community offering seniors 65 to 100-plus all of the spiritual, physical and emotional support needed at this critical part of their lives.
“This legacy is truly a gift that has been given to us. It won’t be packed up and taken home with the sisters,” Pennybyrn’s president, Rich Newman, says. “I can assure you it will be cherished, cultivated and kept alive here at Pennybyrn.”
Sister Lucy takes charge
Sister Lucy says she’ll depart in coming weeks the same way she arrived from Limerick, Ireland – carrying memories in a small suitcase and wearing her trademark navy skirt and jacket, white blouse and a crucifix around her neck.
In her 2018 memoir, she recalled when “I arrived in the New World for the first time. What an exciting but scary sensation I felt when I stepped off the plane at JFK Airport in New York.”
Lucy Hennessey had grown up on a farm in a large Irish Catholic family (with 12 brothers and sisters) that would produce two nuns – including Sister Lucy – and a priest. Amid crops and livestock, prayer was the central focus of their day.
“Morning prayers, prayers before and after meals, the Angelus, and the family rosary were recited each day,” she recounted in her book. “We attended Eucharistic Adoration and Benediction on a regular basis in our parish church.”
At 19, she decided to consecrate her life to God, and entered the SMG congregation at Maryfield Convent in London. She spent the next decade studying theology and other subjects and adapting to religious life.
Upon her arrival in the U.S., she earned a bachelor’s degree in business from High Point University, a nursing administration license from the University of North Carolina and a master’s degree in healthcare administration from St. Louis University.
In 1987, Sister Lucy was named “mission leader” of a small nursing home that would come to be known as Pennybyrn.
“I was told that it was going to be my mission,” Sister Lucy recalls in her beloved Irish brogue, “and I said, ‘Thank you.’ I do the best I can – and I pray a lot.”
Except for four years while she was assigned to other mission work, Sister Lucy has remained at Pennybyrn. She has gained many titles – mission leader, CEO, board of directors chair, lead administrator – as she determinedly and kindly built out the sisters’ vision of a continuum of care they believe the Lord destined.
Sisters’ vision becomes real
On a recent tour of Pennybyrn, Sister Lucy shows her encyclopedic knowledge of the community.
Under the sisters’ leadership – she will not take sole credit – the grounds have grown to offer 49 cottages, 197 independent and assisted-living apartments, 24 memory-support beds, and 125 skilled nursing beds. There’s also a full-fledged rehabilitation center, Eucharistic Adoration Chapel, an interfaith prayer chapel, and soon an adult daycare center.
While the buildings provide the needed structure, it’s the landscapes filled with gardens, art and touches of Irish and Catholic flair – along with compassion of the staff – that make the place feel like home.
“When I go to bed at night, I can put my head down on my pillow,” says one resident, Jackie Batts, whose husband lives in memory care. “I don’t worry about Bill, because I know he is very well taken care of. He is safe, and he is loved, and he is good.”
With her trademark shades on, Sister Lucy crisscrosses the Pennybyrn campus in her SUV waving to residents and stopping to talk. She knows their names and their stories, quietly praying for each of them as she goes about her day.
“I love the people. The people are what it is all about because they make it happen with regard to the spiritual side of things and the administration side, and the care side,”
Sister Lucy reflects. “This is an environment of the people: It is a total community.”
She highlights the traditional Limerick-style stone walls, also featured in the Peace Chapel for interfaith worship. “The rock throughout is very much of an Irish flair intentionally done by Sister Lucy,” says staffer Barker.
Sister Lucy believes, “Pennybyrn is a retirement center as well as a prayer center. Our biggest population is not Catholic – we also have Methodists, Lutherans, Baptists and all the others. We offer interfaith prayer, too, and being able to facilitate that here is very important.”
She also notes other Irish touches: the Celtic crosses in stained glass. Metal shamrock fence posts guarding the SMG cemetery where her departed sisters are buried. Even a traditional Irish pub with beer on tap, a replica from her homeland, prominent in Pennybyrn’s main building.
Pointing to the memory-care unit, Sister Lucy speaks respectfully: “Residents can still walk around. They can go outside, into the memory walk garden. We designed it that way. They can go out one door and into the other, so (wandering) doesn’t matter. They are safe. It is not the end of your life here, but the beginning of it going somewhere else.”
Sister Lucy pauses for a quick prayer at the Perpetual Adoration Chapel, one of her favorite elements at Pennybyrn, accessible 24 hours a day.
The drive for a chapel began with no cash on hand, just a prayer on a slip of paper with $250,000 written on it, which she placed under a statue of the Infant of Prague. Soon enough, generous donors of all faiths raised $300,000 and the adoration volunteer list now exceeds 300 names. The community has kept the chapel open for more than 25 years, and for Sister Lucy, it is critical that it remains that way.
Passing the Torch
With a story like this, Sister Lucy is determined that the character and values – Catholic values – remain at Pennybyrn. In 2022, when the sisters got word they were to be called home, they carefully considered whether to sell to a corporation or transfer Pennybyrn to another organization that would commit to upholding this culture of care.
They spoke with Monsignor Winslow and signed an agreement with Bishop Peter Jugis for the Diocese of Charlotte to assume the pastoral sponsorship, which called for a three-year transition period during which the sisters could teach diocesan leaders about Pennybyrn.
In Year 1, Sister Lucy retained her role as mission leader and chairperson of the board. In Year 2, the bishop assigned Father Stephen Hoyt to accompany Sister Lucy to learn more about the community’s culture and operations. And now, as Year 3 wraps up, Father Hoyt has fully assumed Sister Lucy’s positions as board chair, director of pastoral care and mission leader, while she accompanied him.
“Father Steve is more than we could have hoped for – we sisters are confident he will safeguard all we have established here over generations,” Sister Lucy says. “He is affable and welcoming. He is very active ministering to our residents, visiting the sick, administering last rites and demonstrating Catholic values as well as our ecumenical spirit, embracing people of other faiths.”
Pennybyrn’s owner Maryfield Inc., its board of directors, leadership team and staff will remain the same, and no changes are planned in operations. It is the spiritual sponsorship of the community that transitions now, a change the diocese and the sisters want to be seamless for residents.
Power of people and prayer
With Pennybyrn landing in good hands, Sister Lucy is able to enjoy the smaller elegances of the world she will soon leave behind, such as the art seeded throughout the Pennybyrn grounds. There are three art galleries and programs promoting the artistic and musical abilities of the seniors.
“Art is very nice because it revives your soul,” she says. “It encourages people to pray, it touches them and helps them get engaged, and they are able to communicate with the Lord.”
Particularly special are the dignified artistic touches in the cemetery for the departed Sisters of the Poor Servants of the Mother of God. “It’s so peaceful here,” she says, amid statues of the Blessed Mother and the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
The sisters also erected a stone memorial commemorating departed SMG sisters who came to the New World on a mission. Sister Lucy traces the engraved names with her fingertips and prays for those whose lives mirrored her own.
“I was very happy to be here,” she muses, “and now the Lord needs me somewhere else, and I know He will continue to bless everybody. Anything we did while we were here was through the people and through the power of prayer – a lot of praying.”
— Lisa M. Geraci. Photos by Troy C. Hull and archives
