Remembrance of the Life of Sister Marie Ego SL
Posted on January 23, 2025, by Eleanor Craig SL

April 24, 1938 – Jan. 23, 2025
Editor’s note: Sister Marie Ego SL died peacefully at Loretto Living Center Jan. 23. Marie was 86 and in the 59th year of her Loretto commitment. The following is her brief autobiography, provided by Marie for her remembrance:
“My early spiritual life was nurtured by being a Girl Scout, love of camping and wonders of the outdoors. It was also nurtured by the large maple tree outside my bedroom window where I ‘knew’ God dwelled. I was envious of my Catholic school friends who seemed to know about God, but I could not figure out how I could get to know God. When I was in fourth or fifth grade, I became acquainted with the new public library and the card catalogue. I tried to figure out what to look up. Ah ha. Saints, they would know about God, so I started there. St Joan of Arc by G. B. Shaw was the only book listed under saints. Much to my disappointment there was nothing there to satisfy my young search-mentality. By sixth grade I found Thomas Merton and more. Much better! By my college and early teaching years Teilhard de Chardin sang to my inmost being (deeply touched me) ??
“I became a Catholic despite my father’s vehement objection and my mom’s silent support. When I was 21 and left to go to Easter Sunday Mass my father told me not to come back to the house. I came back after Mass; he was gone. Mom asked what I was doing back. I said, ‘It is my home, too,’ and my dad could not kick me out again; but he did not talk to me for over two years while I still lived at home.
“My quest for God did not end as I discovered more; it seemed to always lead to a new beginning. For two years I worked as a speech therapist for a BOCES (Board of Educational Services) in Columbia County N.Y., south of Albany. I quit my job because I had applied to a Dominican contemplative order. Just after I quit, they refused me, saying I was too active. Was it the skis on my car all winter or? Who knows? Summer was right before me and I went off to become an assistant Girl Scout camp director on Cape Cod, a job I loved. God was there in the energy of the kids and the natural wooded setting. Summer ended and I found a job in North Syracuse, N.Y., as a speech therapist. In my second year there I transferred to teaching in a special education class where the highest IQ was 45. It was an experimental class in New York State, and I needed different certification. Courses were offered by Syracuse University later in the day for teachers to get certified. At Syracuse University I met Sisters of Loretto also studying. Two years later with my master’s degree in hand I drove to Colorado to enter Loretto still looking for God. My father disowned me, so immediate family support was not there. When I got to Colorado there were no big trees around Loretto Center; I felt abandoned even by God. Tumbleweed was no substitute for a tree but soon I saw it had a beauty all its own bouncing around the Center.
“I taught a year at the Heights, several years at Havern School and took courses in Greeley to bring my Colorado certification up to par. Certification led to a degree in counseling psychology and teaching at the University of Northern Colorado, working at Weld County Mental Health Center, teaching and working for Lesley College outreach in Colorado, Wyoming and New Mexico.
“I spent many hours on the road between Greeley and Denver. Many Loretto friends lived with me either full time or part time as they came to study at the University. I met Ellen Hummel, Medical Mission Sister and sibling of our three Loretto Hummel sisters. She invited me to come to Ghana for three to five years and we finally settled on six weeks, but I ended up staying 18 years. In Ghana I found really BIG trees and God in beautiful smiles. After working in Ghana for 18 years teaching counseling skills to hospital staff and many others who worked with people who had HIV/AIDS, I came back to the U.S., and worked on Loretto staff. I moved to the Motherhouse where I keep discovering God who is still in the tree outside my window and in all that is around, in trees, people, green things, animals, rain and all of life, even in death, too. I no longer search for God as though God is separate. God just is.”
Sister Marie died with staff sitting at her bedside. Many Community members and staff gathered together afterward to pray for her. Her wake took place Jan. 29, with her funeral service Jan. 30, both at Loretto Motherhouse. Burial was at the Nature Preserve Cemetery on the grounds of Loretto Motherhouse. May Marie rest in peace.
Below is the reflection given at Marie’s Jan. 30 funeral service by her longtime friend Sister Margaret Moran of the Medical Mission Sisters:
“Good morning. I have been invited to share a reflection during this service as we honor Marie together. I am an MM, a Medical Mission Sister, and was with Marie during her time in Ghana. I have also gotten to know quite a few Sisters of Loretto who also came to Ghana as well as during my visits with you here in the Motherhouse. Thank you for inviting me.
“When I received the request, I tried to tune into Marie in her new state of being out of this body and asked her, ‘Well, what do you want me to say?’ I found this poem in her book:
“It’s called ‘Hibernation,’ and she wrote it on Jan. 22, 2006:
Hibernation
Awake!
The world is new;
am I the same as before
I fell asleep?
or am I
new too?
“I decided to write a letter to Marie for this occasion.
“Dear Marie,
Well, you made it. The end part took a while, but you did make the leap into the space next to God. You had said you were ready to go a few weeks ago, at the beginning of this last saga. I think you knew, in that mysterious way some know, that the end of this earthly life was approaching. You said you had had a good life, full of opportunities.
“As I look back on our time together, 1987 – 2025, 38 years, I would like to reflect on a little part of your wonderful life. It really is amazing. Now, it is also a challenge and comes from the perspective of the years we spent in Ghana together and how our friendship continued when we both returned to the States in 2005, and I was able to get to know more of Loretto here.
“So, Marie, I tried to put down a few thoughts about your long and fascinating life. I wonder how it is now with you.
“What does one’s life come to at the end? Do we look back and take stock or make lists of years spent here and there, doing this or that? Especially in religious life when often we go to many places in pursuit of expressing mission and try to find God at the core of everything.
“As I prepared for this reflection I was asking you, ‘What should I say?’ The first word I ‘heard’ was ‘photos,’ and then ‘words’ and a bit later ‘listening.’
“Everyone in Loretto, and your family and friends know what an exquisite photographer you were. I often said you should send some to the “National Geographic.” I don’t think you ever did. You made calendars with your photos for years. You followed me around on trek in Ghana like a personal PR person. Photography was a meditative skill you honed over the years, and I understand you asked others to stop, look and really see.
“I also ‘heard’ the word ‘words’ and then ‘listening.’
“You used your listening skills to benefit so many people, from classrooms, to therapy sessions, to peer-counseling training, Vietnam vets, counseling training programs for Ghanaian hospital staff, Religious and Formation congregational leaders, your own Loretto community and staff members … the list goes on and on. You did a lot of listening and shared your insights and knowledge through the words you spoke, and the heart spaces you held them in.
“This brings me to a big part of your life – the words you wrote in poetry.
“You published a book, and I am sure over the years there were many more poems that could fill more books. The poems you wrote while in Ghana are full of images of life around you and how it affected you.
“Miles and miles of roads, with and without potholes, elephant grass, wild orchids, heat, rain, no rain, harmattan dust, the beat of talking drums, the bugs, croaking frogs, huge rainforest trees, and the people whose names and stories you knew, Akos, Amma, Thomas, so many others.
“You crafted these poems as a way of digging into this mystery of life. It certainly was a gift.
“You know, it really is impossible to pick out only a few things to write to you about in this letter. I guess we will need eternity to go over it all. Consider this a start.
“Now, before I close this off, I also thought that the readings of today had another few words that I know you tried to live by.
“Paul used a lot of words to his dear Corinthians, and he got very poetic about the main one he wanted them and us to hear.
“That one word was ‘love.’ Love always protects, trusts, hopes, perseveres and never fails.
“Jesus said many words also and then he summed then all up in just a few,
“‘Love one another.’ That’s a showstopper, isn’t it?
“I better end now as I also heard you say to me, “Keep it simple!’
“So let me end with a word from Hafiz, the Persian Poet of the 14th century,
………. Hafiz, (Marie)
There is a private chamber in the soul
That knows a great secret
Of which no tongue can speak.
Your existence my dear, O love my dear,
Has been sealed and marked
‘Too sacred,’ ‘too sacred’ by the Beloved —
To ever end!
Indeed God
Has written a thousand promises
All over your heart
That say, Life, life, life,
Is far too sacred to
ever end.
– “God’s Bucket“
“Amen for now.” Margaret Moran
Sending along our gratitude for our time with Sister Marie. She was a great blessing to our Medical Mission Sisters and Associates “New England Sowers” circle. We will remember her with great love and wish her peace in her life beyond.
I knew Sr. Marie Ego in Ghana, W. Africa. She was a very gifted woman who loved the Ghanaian people and did her best to share her gifts, especially through workshops, programs and counselling. She provided information and learning that was not otherwise available at that time. I am sure she is greatly missed and that the religious women she served, in particular, will always be grateful to her. Thank you, Marie. Rejoice now in the eternal embrace and joy of our Risen Christ.