Sister Stephanie Fink, SSND

Our beloved Sister Stephanie Fink, 87, died suddenly and unexpectedly about 2:25 p.m. on Saturday, December 13, 2014, in Notre Dame Health Care, Good Counsel Hill, Mankato, Minnesota. With a December birthday, she was to be a guest of honor at the Notre Dame Hall birthday celebration that afternoon. When a nursing assistant came to her room about 2:15 to ask if she was ready, Sister Stephanie's response was that she would not be going, "because my Father is coming to get me." When staff checked on her ten minutes later, she had died. The funeral Mass for Sister Stephanie, with Father Bernard Steiner as presider, will be at 10:30 a.m., Monday, December 22, in Good Counsel Chapel, Mankato, followed by her burial in our cemetery. The vigil service will be at 7:00 p.m. on Sunday. We extend our sympathy to her sisters Joan Fink, SSND, and Leatta Zappa, her nieces and nephews and their families, her friends, former colleagues and students, and her sisters in community, the School Sisters of Notre Dame. She was preceded in death by her parents, Steven and Dorothy (Jarosch) Fink, a brother Steven, and sisters Marie Byland and Dorothy Thompson. Sister Stephanie wrote in her autobiography, "As the morning sun crept over the horizon of glistening white snow on December 17, 1926, I began my existence in the world, in a small section of it called West St. Paul. I was the third girl in number; two more followed with an only boy, but he was older and could hold his own among so many girls." She was baptized at St. Matthew Church on January 2, 1927, and named Rosemary. Her father was a butcher who owned his own small grocery store, and her mother was a caterer. Sister Stephanie described her childhood "as uneventful, with normal childhood stuff.' I loved to go fishing and help Mom and Dad plant the garden." She would rather build doll houses out of orange crates than play with the dolls. Due to the great distance to the Catholic school, Rosemary spent her first two years of school at Emerson School. When she was in second grade, she transferred to St. Matthew School and was taught by School Sisters of Notre Dame. After graduating from St. Matthew in 1941, she attended Sibley Junior High for ninth grade, and then went to Humbolt High School. In January of her sophomore year, illness caused her to discontinue her schooling. Sister Stephanie continued her story: "In May of that same year, 1943, I obtained a position at the South St. Paul Daily Reporter. At the same time evening classes at Rasmussen's Business College were also commenced. For about a year I worked in the bindery and pressroom, and then was given the position of Classified Advertising and Circulation Manager. Any free time was spent in helping Dad at the store, in the garden, or fishing." It was about this time that Rosemary began to think seriously about becoming a sister. She commented, "As a child I always had great reverence and respect for the sisters. As a young girl, the thought of becoming a religious never for a moment entered my mind. I can truthfully say for positive that my vocation came through the Blessed Virgin Mary. A co-worker and I began a novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Help at the Assumption Church immediately after work. From there I would go to St. Matthew's for another one at 7:30. Each Tuesday I would watch the sisters file in, in perfect order, and take their places. I wondered how they could stand those long black habits. . . . Then I understood. There was something, too, I was searching for; something that couldn't be found in the world. It was after Easter of 1946 that the desire to become a nun hit me like a ton of bricks." She talked it over with her mother, who was somewhat reluctant, but a July vacation convinced Rosemary to act. In August she visited the sisters at St. Matthew, and they made an appointment for her at Good Counsel for August 15. She wrote, "I fell in love with Good Counsel the moment I set my eyes on it. Measurements were taken and arrangements were made to enter on August 28. Yes, truly, the Lord works in strange and wondrous ways.'" Many of Rosemary's Rasmussen credits were applied to her high school requirements, and with a few classes at Good Counsel Academy during her first year in the candidature, she was able to finish high school and begin college classes. As a second-year candidate, she taught second grade at St. Mary, Shakopee. She wrote, "Isn't it strange that my first mission was named after Our Blessed Mother?" Rosemary was received into the Novitiate in July 1948, and given the name Sister M. Stephanie, a form of her father's name. (Later, her sister Joan would be given a name derived from their mother's name - Dorothea.) Following profession in 1949, Sister Stephanie began a teaching ministry that continued until 1984. She taught primary grades at Sacred Heart, Heron Lake (1949-51) and St. Francis, Buffalo (1951-53); intermediate grades at St. Francis de Sales, St. Paul (1953-57) and St. Felix, Wabasha (1957-61); and upper grades at St. Andrew, St. Paul (1961-62), St. Paul, Comfrey (1962-67), St. Francis de Sales (1967-68 and 1970-76), St. Anthony, Lismore (1968-70), Guardian Angels, Colton, Washington (1976-78), St. Michael, Prior Lake (1978-82), and Epiphany, Coon Rapids (1982-84). She was also the principal at Comfrey and Colton. During these teaching years, she earned a Bachelor's degree in Education from Mount Mary College, Milwaukee, in 1962. In 1974, she was privileged to travel to Rome and SSND heritage locations in Germany as part of the Rome Renewal Program. She called this "truly a happy and great time." In 1984, during her final year at Epiphany, Coon Rapids, Sister Stephanie provided secretarial services for the parish. From 1985 through1989 she continued this ministry at Holy Spirit Parish in St. Cloud. During this time, she also provided child care for her physical therapist, beginning a relationship that continued up to the present. In 1990, she began working in the Development office for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis as a secretary and bookkeeper. When she retired from that position in 1999, she wrote, "The eight years at the Archdiocesan Development Office have been just GREAT. I worked with some truly loving people there. The hardest thing I had to do in life was to admit this is the end. It's time to rest and give glory to God." Sister Stephanie lived with her sister Joan in St. Paul, where she did volunteer work and enjoyed her retirement until 2004. She moved to Good Counsel in 2004 and helped out in a variety of ways. She used her bookkeeping experience as she kept accounts for the small Hill communities. A warm, welcoming person, she was noted for her good sense of humor and quick wit. She collected jokes, which she shared with the sisters in health care; two books of collected jokes were found in her room. She enjoyed cooking and baking, using skills she developed when she helped out at home, and if there was a card game in the vicinity, Sister Stephanie was probably one of the participants. Cribbage was a favorite. Sister Stephanie chose the theme of giving thanks and praise for her funeral liturgy. May she now be eternally expressing that praise and gratitude to the Father who came for her the afternoon of her death! Sister Mary Kay Ash, SSND