“If the world takes something from us on the one hand, God will give us something on the other.”
St. Louise de Marillac
Life through Love and Friendship: Sisters Delia Sizler and Anne Darlene Wojtowicz
By Sebastian Isaacs, Communications intern
S. Delia Sizler saved the letters she received from Saigon while S. Anne Darlene ministered with Catholic Relief Services soon after completing novitiate, where their friendship blossomed.
Although Sisters Delia Sizler and Anne Darlene Wojtowicz have spent more years ministering apart than together, their friendship has withstood borders and change. Since entering the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati in 1965, the two Sisters have shared a deep commitment to living the SC mission by pioneering ministries rooted in caring for all creation and building loving relationships.
Reflecting on their friendship, which blossomed during their years of formation amid the transitions following the Second Vatican Council, S. Dee shared, “The lifestyle then was really like boot camp, where you took care of each other.”
Whether walking to college classes together every day or enjoying the snacks S. Anne Darlene quietly brought for S. Dee and her family during a visit, the close-knit community fostered a friendship that endured long after ministry assignments took them in different directions.
As they discerned new ways of living religious life in the spirit of Vatican II, S. Anne Darlene said, “We did some neat stuff together. We don’t always remember it, but we know it was special.”
“That’s the great part about being friends,” S. Dee added. “She remembers what I’ve forgotten and what I remember, she’s forgotten!”
What may come as a surprise about their friendship is that while S. Dee might not remember every moment from the past 60 years, many of their transformational early days have been preserved through the letters that S. Dee kept from S. Anne Darlene.
“I guess I just realized that this was history in the making,” S. Dee said of the letters S. Anne Darlene sent her while ministering with Catholic Relief Services in Saigon during the final years of the Vietnam War. Shortly after completing her first vows and graduating from the University of Albuquerque, S. Anne Darlene requested to be missioned overseas.
“We never had a Juniorate, though that used to be the practice,” S. Dee explained. “Our formation was cut short because they needed us in the schools.”
“I wanted to be a nurse,” S. Anne Darlene said, though she was discouraged due to the need for teachers in the local archdiocesan schools. “Good thing we couldn’t listen!”
With the approval of congregational leadership, she decided to follow the late Sisters Kateri Maureen Koverman and Rose Cheng to Vietnam. She remained until 1972 when Operation Babylift brought her home, then went on to finish her contract with Catholic Relief Services in Hodeidah, Yemen.
In 1975, the Sisters spent a summer living and ministering together in Dog Patch, a neighborhood in Pueblo, Colorado, where the Sisters’ encounters with the most vulnerable and the freedom they found living and ministering in the West helped shape the paths each Sister would follow for the rest of her life.
After that summer, their ministries took them in different directions, and they rarely saw one another outside of annual congregational gatherings. Yet their friendship endured, strengthened by a shared conviction that God was calling them to respond to needs wherever they found them.
In 1983, S. Dee co-founded Bethany House. Although establishing the ministry required determination and patience, Bethany House Services would go on to expand the scope of the congregation’s mission by affirming a new chapter devoted to serving vulnerable women.
S. Dee dedicated herself to Bethany House, living alongside the homeless women she served. Meanwhile, S. Anne Darlene was helping establish Holy Family Services in Weslaco, Texas. Together with three other Sisters, she helped create a birth center where women with limited resources could safely deliver their babies.
Beyond her years in education and at Bethany House, S. Dee was also called to Juneau, Alaska, in 2010. There she ministered at AWARE (Aiding Women in Abuse and Rape Emergencies), served on the founding board for Haven House, established for women released from prison, and founded Family Pastoral Services, a counseling practice. Gaining approval to provide counseling in Alaska required the same persistence that had characterized many of her earlier ministries. She remained there until 2017.
“We did stuff that we [the Sisters of Charity] wouldn’t ordinarily do because it was the right thing to do,” S. Dee said, reflecting on the determination that shaped both Sisters’ ministries. “Sometimes we had to buck the system to be able to follow the Holy Spirit.”
“We did what the Spirit led us to, whether it was liked or not. Finally, when we did it and they saw it was good, they were proud of us. Then the next Sisters could do things easier,” S. Anne Darlene continued, having ministered her entire career as the family nurse practitioner and nurse midwife she was once discouraged from becoming. “We were stubborn, weren’t we? We still are.”
S. Dee laughed. Looking back at the years where their love and trust in one another served as a constant source of comfort, she said to S. Anne Darlene, “I’ve always admired your stamina. Your ability to focus on what it is that’s important and the heart you did it with.”
S. Anne Darlene shared similar thoughts, explaining, “I would say the same about you because you stood up for what you believed in. I stood up for what I believed, and we both kept our focus on God.”
Now, living in community once again as they discern this new chapter of their life side-by-side, S. Dee shared, “I feel grateful to have her in my life right now, because we’re going to go through a lot of stuff together. It’s been a privilege to support her.”
The two Sisters know better than anyone that the congregation and their lives will continue to change with time. “We’re here in nursing now, and I never thought I would be here,” S. Dee said. “But we get carried by faith, we walk by faith.”
S. Anne Darlene added, “That’s what we do every day.”
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