Sister Inez Lee Enters Eternal Life

Born in Hong Kong on May 30, 1924, she joined the Columban Sisters in Ireland in 1958 and did her Novitiate training there.

Following her First Profession in 1960 she was assigned back to Hong Kong where, for many years, she served as Administrator of the Rutonjee Sanitorium which was run by the Columban Sisters.

Her Funeral Mass was celebrated in the convent chapel at the Motherhouse in Magheramore after which she was laid to rest in the convent cemetery.

R.I.P.

Funeral Mass Homily

By Sister Redempta Twomey

Today we lay to rest the remains of Sister Inez who after a long illness, died on Saturday morning, the 8^th of March in our Nursing Home here in Magheramore. In one of those lovely touches with which our God continually surprises us it happened to be the golden Jubilee of her entrance day.  It was on this day in 1958 that Rona Mary Magdalen Lee crossed the threshold of Magheramore to begin her life as a Columban Sister. Now 50 years to the day she made another crossing, this time to the eternal life of heaven. One cannot help thinking that her precise, exact little person would smile at the precision of the dates – and surely the Lord is smiling too as he welcomes her into the mansion prepared for her.

Sister Inez was the eldest of the prominent Lee family in Hong Kong.  Her mother died while she was still young, a great loss to a sensitive young girl. Educated at home in her early years, she later matriculated in St Paul’s School. Highly intelligent and hard-working she honed her secretarial and accounting skills and held a job in an import/export business in Hong Kong. In her late twenties she came across some spiritual books and, as she said herself, ‘began thinking.’ It was a thinking that led her to be baptized and received into the Catholic Church in 1950. The thinking, and now undoubtedly the praying, continued and eight years later she joined the Columban Sisters.

What a mystery a religious vocation is! Here is a young woman in a very secular environment who, with little outward religious support, responds to the inner prompting of her heart. Like Abraham she sets out on a journey whose end she cannot fully know. What courage it took to leave her family and all that was familiar to cross the ocean to begin a new life in a country and among a people very different to her own. The long journey on the boat gave her plenty of time to think. In a letter she wrote at the time we get a glimpse of her heart. She enjoyed the life on board very much, she wrote, and joined in the fun and games. But, she would be glad if they could arrive sooner because ‘there are really too many things to claim one’s attention.’  Already her focus was on the God who called her and she was eager to follow him more closely.

After making her vows in 1960 she returned to Hong Kong and worked in the Ruttonjee Sanatorium. A course in hospital administration equipped her to be the very efficient administrator of the Ruttonjee.  Exacting on herself, she could also be very demanding on others. Her fastidiousness and minute attention to detail sometimes overruled the inherent kindness of her nature and there were occasional battles. But many could see beyond her pursuit of an excellence which proved too demanding on others, to her readiness to help when asked and her unfailing reliability.

She was sent to Ireland in the eighties and in time was appointed Regional bursar. Brilliant at figures, she kept meticulous accounts and never a farthing went missing. Here too we saw her kindness as she helped some of the less numerate members to strike a balance, so to speak.

A new phase in her life began when, in response to the 1987 Chapter she began an out-reach ministry to the overseas Chinese in Dublin. This was a happy and fruitful time and we are glad to see many of her Chinese friends gathered here with us today and those who came to the removal. Sister Inez cared for each of you and your families. Your goodness and friendship with her was one of the blessings in her life. Her family, to whom we offer our deep sympathy, cannot be here today but we know they would be glad of your presence.

Despite limited energies Inez responded to the beauty all around her in Magheramore. She had an eye for what is delicate and fine and delighted in the flowers and the birds that are here. But most of all we will remember her as the Lunar Lady!  How she loved the appearance of the full moon, calling us to ‘Come, come, look at the moon!’  And we would come, often gathering on the roof to soak in the beauty filling the sky and reflecting on the sea.  Another of her passions was for classical music and until she no longer was able, she faithfully played the piano most days. If we had music at meal times she lingered on to hear the last note.

Suffering marked her later years and, despite the wonderful care given by the nursing staff, she found the going hard as pain unravelled her person reducing her to an inner state of helplessness. Well none of us know the terrors, so graphically described in the psalms, which can grip a body when death is on the horizon. It was a difficult and taxing time for all, relieved by the patience and care of those who looked after her, especially our staff in the Nursing Home.

“I know I’m dying,” she told us during the last fortnight.  When I went to see her that last evening, not thinking that she would die so soon, she again said that she was dying. She was, she said, ready to die. Then she asked me to find her ring and put it on her finger. As I slipped it on her slightly swollen finger I was aware of the huge significance of this act. Because on her ring was her motto – those profound words of St Paul: ‘To live is Christ.’ In a very real way she was, in her final hours, claiming her deepest identity. ‘To live is Christ and,’ St Paul continues, ‘to die is gain.’ The dying, she knew, had already begun and it was all right because, in an unfathomable way, it was not the end but the beginning, the ‘gain’ of the divine life within her. She prayed then, with serenity and peace, as she fingered her ring. A few hours later in the pre-dawn light, God took her to himself.

May she delight now in the mansions of heaven, in the music of the angels, in joy of the Lord who led her through the years to the peace of his presence.