Vale Sr Margaret Wall rsj
29 Apr 1923 – 9 Dec 2019

The time has finally come to do a fuller obituary for her than was possible last December on Instagram. In the interim a good friend acquired a copy of her funeral book for me, and a copy of her official Josephite obituary, because so many locals were unable to attend her Hunters Hill funeral.

The aim is to put them all together into some kind of coherent whole, and to repare for the many times in her life when her presence went unrecorded.
​
This amazing woman was called into eternity on 9 Dec 2019 after a long life.

​She came into the world on 29 Apr 1923 in Toowoomba QLD, to English-born parents, Harry Wall and Elsie Wall nee Roberts. Her parents came to Australia as post World War I immigrants with her elder sister Dorothy. Then the rest of their children, Bill, our Margaret, Marjorie and Joan were all born in Australia. Her father was a Church of England minister, which may be why they moved from time to time. When Margaret was a teenager they moved to NSW.

Margaret’s initial training was as a nurse. As a young woman in country NSW she decided to become a Catholic at Glenn Innes. This took place in November 1948 at St Patrick’s Glen Innes.

That parish had a convent of Josephite nuns, and one of them in particular, Sr Keiran, introduced Margaret to the life of Mary McKillop, the foundress of the order. Not too long after that the call to follow Jesus as a religious came, and she said Yes, and around 3 years after becoming a Catholic entered the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart. Her family, especially her father, found this very difficult to comprehend.

In 1955 Margaret made her final vows as a Sister of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart. It is primarily a teaching order, so after her Profession Margaret needed to retrain to become a teacher. She was assigned as a sub primary teacher, and taught Kindergarten and the lower grades of primary school at various locations, including Penrith, Leichhardt, Lakemba, Rockdale, Lavender Bay, Punchbowl, Guildford, Burwood, Camden and Lidcombe.

Margaret had a keen mind and a life-long love of learning. During 1969-1971 she completed a part-time Diploma of Theology, in 1974 attended the Tiertianship at the Aldgate convent near Adelaide in South Australia, and later did the Emmaus programme at the Baulkham Hills retreat centre and the Crossroads Course in 1990.

For some reason, maybe it was her special affinity with people doing it tough, Margaret transitioned from teaching into social work. She studied for a Diploma in Social Welfare at Milperra College of Advanced Education, and then set up the West Care Pastoral Ministry at St Marys (near Penrith). In this ministry she spent 6 busy and fruitful years, until she was sent to Woy Woy.

Her first visit to Woy Woy parish was a brief one in the 1960s as a teacher in the parish primary school. She returned in 1991 for a much longer stint as a parish associate.

She had her fingers in many pies around the place. She was one of the driving forces behind the establishment of Mary Mac's Place, a ministry to the homeless and disadvantaged through meals and support. She founded the local branch of the Josephite Associates, set up to help non-consecrated-religious share in the charism of St Mary McKillop.

Margaret took part in local University of the Third Age (U3A) activities with gusto.

With her cheery demeanour and her ability to connect with anyone, she accomplished an enormous amount of good, be they homeless, addicted, in pain or of significant influence. Frequently she was called upon to be the way forward when dispute resolution had reached an impasse.

In our two local hospitals she was a familiar sight, taking Holy Communion and her special brand of sunshine to the sick.

Photographs do not do her justice, because they cannot show how she seemed to float or half-waltz her way through life, nor the good humour behind her perennial smiles, and the love which lit up her whole face.
​
She was the last of the Josephite nuns in our parish, moving out of the convent into a villa near the private hospital, enabling the convent to become the parish office until the whole parish site was rebuilt.

When declining health took hold around 2005 she reluctantly left the parish and went into aged care at Hunters Hill, firstly hostel accommodation and later nursing home, yet keeping up relationships with her Josephite Associates and other parishioners as long as her mental abilities enabled her. This capacity to make and keep loyal friendships was a hallmark of her life, from Josephite Novitiate through all the different places, communities, ministries and parishes in which she lived.

However her time at Hunters Hill wasn’t truly retirement, but the beginning of a new ministry, joining in a local parish prayer group.

Margaret was an independent thinker, bringing the clarity of a convert to Catholicism to some matters of faith which ‘cradle Catholics’ found confusing, and she embraced the Renewal after Vatican II with joy.

She had the blessing of being able to celebrate her golden jubilee of profession in 2005 and her diamond jubilee of profession in 2015.

For her own enjoyment and reflection Margaret wrote poetry and loved the literary word. She was close to all her siblings, in-laws and relatives and held a special love for her nieces and nephews. All her life she held true to a deep faith and confidence in her loving God and in His providence.

Her funeral took place at St Joseph’s Chapel at Hunters Hill on 16 Dec 2019, and afterwards her body was laid to rest in Macquarie Park Cemetery.

May God have mercy upon her soul, and richly reward all her service to Him and His people.
​
We were so blessed to have known her and witnessed her love for God at daily Mass and everywhere else.

In recent weeks our family has experienced the death and funeral of Betty Olive Cavanagh nee Hunt, 9 Feb 1931 - 20 Jun 2018. Having promised many people that I would make her obituary available online, that is what I hope to do in this blog-post, as well as add in some photographs, some extra written material, and downloadable links to her funeral booklet, prayer card and a video-clip of her speaking about her life. 

Here is the obituary as printed in her funeral booklet. The family decided to print it rather than speak it, because a) we wanted to do her life justice b) many people find it hard to hear all that is said in a spoken eulogy and c) people can read it (and re-read it) at their own pace.

Obituary
​Betty Olive Cavanagh 9 Feb 1931 – 20 Jun 2018

Betty entered our world as the eldest daughter of Joseph Bede Hunt and Enid Noble in 1931. Her father at the time of her birth was a shunter with the NSW Railways. Bede's father was a blacksmith at Moorilda near Bathurst and Enid's father was an engine driver at Cowra.
​
When Betty was born, her parents were living at Enfield near the railway marshalling yards, very close to Enid's parents who were also by that stage living at Enfield. Bede then got a move to Bathurst, and for some reason Betty remained in the care of her maternal grandparents and maternal aunts and uncles. Perhaps the reason was that they didn't want to be parted from her, and all of us can relate to that! Perhaps there were concerns about the rates of tuberculosis in Bathurst. 

Siblings Elaine and Bill followed, but they always lived with their parents. Bede received moves to Cootamundra, Narrandera and Belmont, and eventually back to Enfield, where the family made their home at Lidcombe.

At school with the nuns Betty was happy. With the Children of Mary sodality she received good spiritual formation and a devotion to St Maria Goretti.

Betty left school at age 15 and began work as a mail delivery person at Hodgson & Co. at Ashfield. From there she moved into admin, working firstly on a half-ledger and later on a full ledger, being promoted regularly until she was looking after the ledger accounts for a single commercial traveller and entrusted with face to face over the counter interactions with customers.
​
It was in this 'front of house' role that she was noticed by Robert Cavanagh (a.k.a. Toby) as he came in to deliver the mail. She was not interested, but he had seen how special she was and he was persistent. Upon discovering that she liked to go swimming, he made sure that he tagged along the next time she went to the pool with her relatives. Their first official date was soon after 'chicken in a basket' was a menu option and they had that and went to a movie, had a memorable day together and from then on the relationship blossomed. Toby won over Betty's
siblings and her Noble relatives, but her mother was a different story. Enid wanted someone with more prospects for her daughter. 

Love found a way, and they were married on 2 Jun 1956, and after their honeymoon they lived with Toby's Mum and siblings at Summer Hill. Their son Paul arrived around 9 months later, and their daughter Maria around 5 years after that.
​
It was in 1961 that Toby and Betty came to live in Umina Beach, and Toby began operating the first Woolworths store in the area. 50 years later Betty was given the honour of cutting the ribbon to open the new Woolworths store at Umina Beach.

Back in 1961 they attended Sunday Mass at the cinema at Ettalong until the Sacred Heart Church at Umina was opened in 1964.

In the mid-late 1960s Toby was working at the (then new) shopping centre at Grace Bros, Top Ryde until he was head-hunted by Jim Dickson to run and hopefully eventually own the mixed business in West Street, Umina. Such were the desires of this young family until ill health and the discovery of digestive tract cancer reduced his life span, coming to a close on St Valentine's Day 1969 after multiple surgeries and an extended stay in Hornsby hospital. This left Betty a widow with 2 growing children dependent on her, and the loss of their dream of building their own home.

She did not know how she was going to cope with the responsibilities that now rested solely on her shoulders. Benefactors like Dr Frank O'Brien assisted with the expenses of school fees, and the family stayed in rented accommodation until the owners wanted to sell the property, and then they moved into a holiday cottage at Umina Beach owned by Bede and Enid, where Enid's sister Madge was living at the time. Enid expected and received regular rent payments.

Somehow she survived the acquisition by her children of all sorts of pets including Labradors and guinea pigs, but never cats – felines and Betty shared a mutual dislike. She survived the challenges of children with broken bones, appendicitis and eye operations. She survived their teenage years with associated romantic heartaches and watching a business venture crumble as the great recession of mid-late 1980's hit. How? By lots of prayer, the support of extended family, and offering up of each new difficulty as an act of mortification for the Holy Souls in Purgatory.
​
Sometime between 1968 and 1969, when Fr Michael McCarthy was around, she got roped into becoming the sacristan at Sacred Heart Umina, setting up vestments and vessels for regular Masses and funerals and doing copious amounts of ironing of sacred linens. He bailed her up against one of the walls of the school and said that the couple who had been setting up for Mass (presumably at the cinema) were getting on in years, and she was much younger. Even after the Sacred Heart Umina property was sold in 2007, she continued to assist in the preparations for Saturday morning and Saturday vigil Mass, and to take home linen corporals and purifiers to wash and iron right up to the weekend before her palliative radiation treatment started. This meant that she served at Sacred Heart, Umina Beach from soon after it opened until it closed. 

She narrowly survived the calcification of a stent intended to temporarily fix an issue with the bladder back in 1993, losing one kidney in the process that was probably malfunctioning all through her life. Maybe it was this scare that made her so obedient to following her doctors' instructions, or maybe she just loved to imitate the obedience of Jesus.

Truthfulness was another virtue – but only supplied when the answer to the questions people asked her required it. Working out the right question to ask, now that was the hard part.
​
The evidence of the power of her prayers with God is impressive. God decided to answer the lengthy prayers of a mother concerned about the happiness of her son at the same time as He decided to answer the lengthy prayers of a lassie
seeking a good and holy husband in a way that a sequel to the Book of Tobit could be written. Then when the family wanted to put on a special celebration for her 75th birthday, she didn't want that at all, she prayed, and lo and behold a spot opened up for her to have a gall bladder operation requiring that her birthday be spent in hospital – a story to rival St Scholastica's. You noticed that stubborn streak did you? Good.

Her happiest days in later life came with the arrival of her two grandsons, and the affection between them was profound and mutual. Going on pilgrimage to Rome, the Holy Land and Medjugorje with them during the Holy Year of 2000 was another highlight. Further joys came with regular get-togethers with her siblings and their spouses, and when her brother Bill and his wife Cecilia moved to Ettalong around 2009.

Betty supported her children Paul and Maria with her prayers, presence and practical help when they both went through surgery and further treatment to remove cancer – thankfully not at the same time, but a few years apart.

Because she knew the One in whom she trusted, her first recourse when any need presented itself to her was to take it to prayer. If there was a situation she wasn't happy with, she didn't add her opinions to the mix, instead she took them all in prayer to the One she knew could fix any situation. This made her an
unparalleled mother-in-law. This same quality made her the confidante of many, even of complete strangers who would sit next to her on the bench while she waited for the rest of the family to complete their grocery shopping.

Her other special ministry was liturgical in nature. Daily missal in hand and with clear voice she would take her part in saying the Entrance and Communion antiphons at Mass and in making sure the Lamb of God prayers were begun at the right time. She was the go-to-gal for anyone unsure of which set of Proper prayers or set of readings was the correct one for that day's Mass. With unfailing patience she got everyone who turned to her for help onto the right page. Each morning she took part in the Morning Prayer of the Church, and frequently joined in the
communal recitation of the Rosary after daily Mass.

We thought she would be with us for much longer since her father lived till 94 and her mother to 101, but after 49 years of widowhood God decided that it was time to prepare her for the longed for reunion with her dear ones in heaven. This took the form of an aggressively growing oral cancer, paired with the double whammy of advanced age and lone kidney.

It took these difficult final weeks when her strength was fading to uncover just how good and patient a listener she must have been for her many friends over the years because a pattern became apparent that most of them had the 'gift of the gab'.

Her lifetime of 'offering it up for the holy souls' and understanding of the value of 'acts of mortification' bore fruit in the way she gently accepted the increasing bad news about her health and squarely faced all the medical tests and treatments recommended, as well as her increasingly larger dependence on nursing assistance. 

Keeping records neatly was something she excelled at. In her diary she would note down the time of day and priest for each Mass she attended – even the 'Mass For You At Home' broadcasts early on Sunday mornings, and times of phone calls and medical appointments, all in her trademark capital letters. Cousins and nieces and nephews were never forgotten, she kept in contact with them and never missed sending a birthday card. She enjoyed reading, especially about the lives of holy people, and doing puzzles, always solving the ones at the back of her TV Week magazine.

Up until 31 May 2018, the diocesan patronal feast day of Our Lady, Star of the Sea, she was at morning Mass every day, but from then on the decline in her health began in earnest. 

She loved to pray the ‘Stay with me’ prayer of St Padre Pio, and this was answered in a wonderful way in her last days, as her last three Holy Communions were given with 1/4 of a host, the last 1/4 consumed by her son Paul a few hours after she very gently breathed her last, as she wished, at home in her sleep.

May God grant her a merciful judgment and an extraordinary reward. Amen.

................................................................................................
Her friend, Beverley, wanted to say something at Betty's funeral, so I promised her that I would put it online instead:

A voice rings out in the Church. It is the voice of Betty Cavanagh. She is saying the Entrance Antiphon Prayer as Father is walking in to our Church for Morning Mass. We join her but only a few have a missal. Betty also says the Lamb of God prayer after the Lord's Prayer and I join her in the Communion Antiphon. She is my mentor and my friend. For ten years she has been guiding me along God's path. There is so much she knows about the Church Year and often she would turn around to see if I had the right page. Her seat, in front of me is empty now, and I miss her, especially our hug.
My dear friend, au revoir.
Beverley.

​..............................................................................................

​The homily at her funeral, which I have no hope of doing justice too, was given by a former parish priest, Dr John Hill, and he spoke about how only the strong are able to be meek, and how only the strong are able to forgive, and how those that the world doesn't give a second glance to are most precious in the eyes of God - because their whole intent is on pleasing Him.

..............................................................................................

Some year's back, the parish priest at the time devised a form for parishioners to fill in so that the parish had a record of their wishes for readings, hymns, internment, funeral options etc, and the back page had a biographical section.

Betty filled out the front page, and the back page, but could never decide which readings and hymns she wanted.

We found that back page after her death, and include it here because it is in her own handwriting and in her own words:

So what did we end up choosing for her funeral readings and hymns? and Why?

The first reading from the prophet Micah, about the simple things needed for us to please God, had been a family favourite and reminded us of the direct simplicity of Betty's relationship with God.

The psalm, Psalm 94(95), is the one Betty prayed every morning in the Prayers of the Church, a.k.a. the Divine Office.

The second reading from St Paul's letter to the Philippians was for the feast day of St Romauld, 19 June, and was read for Betty at her last Holy Communion, when it felt so completely apt for that moment.

The Gospel from St Luke is about the holy people in the Temple who waited for the Messiah, particularly the woman who was widowed young and spent the rest of her days serving God.

Hymn-wise, 'Gentle woman, quiet light' is as good a description of Betty as it is of Our Lady, as she definitely tried to live out her consecration to the Mother of Jesus each day, and that became the opening hymn.

Betty loved the hymn Panis Angelicus, especially when Lyn Dwyer sang it, so that was an obvious choice for Holy Communion, and was followed by a favourite of many, Soul of my Saviour, as the post-Communion hymn.

Betty liked that at Nina's funeral on 30 May 2018, a good friend of hers, they had the Salve Regina (Latin version of the Hail Holy Queen) as the last hymn, and we liked it too. It is also the anthem to Our Lady that closes Night Prayer for people around the world, and what the priests of our diocese sing as their final farewell to one of their own.

Here's a copy of the funeral booklet, if you would like to read them in full:​

And if you would like to hear Betty talking about her life in the interview her grandson did with her back on 7 May 2018 soon after the medical news confirmed that the cancer was stage 4 and inoperable, it takes about 18 minutes: 

After all that, there's a chance you might like to have a prayer card to put in your bible, missal, prayer book etc, to remember her by. So here's a downloadable version: