A connection to religion and a desire to help people have always been there for Sr Rose Carmel McNamara. But the Dublin woman never expected that at the age of 82 she would find herself living and working in Bucharest, Romania.
She moved to England when she was just 17 and worked with children there until the turn of the millennium. At that stage she felt it was time for a change. “I said I wanted to go somewhere else on a mission, but I didn’t want another language,” she says with a laugh.
However, things do not always work out as anticipated and, following a three-week visit in early 2000, she realised the Romanian capital was exactly where she was meant to be.
“First of all, I just looked around to see what it [Romania] was like. And I saw, particularly the elderly, searching the bins for something to eat,” she says. “That struck the heart. That was really common at that time, more common than now. You still see it, but at that time it was very, very common.”
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Sr Rose Carmel moved officially in October 2000. “I had no idea what I was going to do except I knew that I would be teaching English to some HIV-positive children, as I’d been asked to do that before I came out.”
Loneliness is a big issue. The elderly don’t want to come out
She adds: “I had organised a food drive before I came out too. I had shoeboxes filled with non-perishable food. We used to meet people who we knew needed food and we gave them shoeboxes.”
Things took a strange turn six months after her arrival when someone reported her helpful actions to the Romanian authorities. She was taken into a room by officials and questioned for three hours due to a belief that she had set up a charity without going through the proper channels.
Following this, Sr Rose Carmel decided to set up a more formal arrangement and what is now known as the Association of Our Lady of Mercy in Romania was born.
The association, which she says is primarily funded through donations from Ireland, as well as some from England, seeks to help older people in the Eastern European country.
There are 40 older people whom the association sees once a month. Most of these visit its centre, while about 10 housebound individuals receive a visit from volunteers offering to provide them company.
“Loneliness is a big issue. The elderly don’t want to come out. A lot of them want to just stay in and look at the walls,” Sr Rose Carmel says.
During the meet-ups at the centre, attendees often just want someone to talk to. “Other times, we have one person who is very good at gymnastics. She might do five minutes of different things and they love it. Then other times if there is a kind of a lull, I might put on a bit of music or something. It depends. We judge the day and see.”
I wanted to be with the poor and that’s why I’m here
The centre also provides essential food items to the people it helps, many of whom rely only on a pension of just €240 a month to get by.
“We would buy 12 items each month – oil, sugar, the necessary things to ensure they’re fed. And also some meat and it’s the only time they’d see meat. Sometimes it’s chicken, other times it’s tinned meat,” Sr Rose Carmel says, adding that this is only possible due to the generosity of Irish people.
A sister runs a fundraiser at Holy Spirit Church in Ballyroan, Dublin every April and sends on individual donations received throughout the year.
Conscious of her age, Sr Rose Carmel recently took a step back from the presidency of the association in Bucharest – after 14 years at the helm – but she remains involved in the day-to-day operation.
“I could go in the night, I could have a fall, anything could happen,” she says. “I don’t know what will happen in the future. I could be asked to come back because we’re dying one after the other. We’re heavy on the side of ready for the Lord, but you just don’t know. You’ve got to have your feet on the ground.”
A significant decrease to the number of devout and practising Catholics in recent decades has not left Sr Rose Carmel disillusioned.
“You can’t look at individuals. Within something you’ll get a bad apple here or there, but I’d say 99.9 per cent of them are there because they want to be. I wanted to be with the poor and that’s why I’m here.”
So what’s next? Certainly not retirement, she says. “So long as I’ve my head about me and I’m physically able, I’ll keep helping people.”
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