Remembrance of the Life of Sister Imelda Therese (I.T.) Marquez SL

Sister Imelda Therese (I.T.) Marquez SL died peacefully around noon May 16, 2025. She had been visited by Community members during the morning and was accompanied by nursing staff when she quietly died at the Loretto Living Center. I.T. was 97 and just beginning the 75th year of her Loretto membership. May her path to heaven be strewn with flowers.

We have Sister Imelda Therese’s story in her own words, from a booklet she prepared in 2009 for her family and shared with us:

“I was born Virginia Theresa in Las Animas Colo.  My mother told me it was around 8 on a Friday night. My parents were Castulo Marquez and Imelda Sanchez. My dad was born in the village of Anton Chico, northern New Mexico, in 1882. My mother was also born there, the next year. Consequently, they had known each other all their lives. They married in 1904. Two years before I was born, my family moved from northern New Mexico to Las Animas, southern Colorado. By the time I was born my parents had been married almost 24 years. As a child I thought my parents were really old.

“During his life my dad was a ‘Jack of all trades’ — accomplished carpenter, farmer, surveyor, postmaster and county treasurer. My mother was a saint. How perfectly she fit the description of the ‘Valiant Woman.’ I thought she could make something out of anything. She made most of my clothes, she had a ‘green thumb.’ She cut hair for all of us, including my dad. And she cooked!  I spent many hours with her in the kitchen.

“One of the great sorrows of my life was the language barrier. We had to speak to our parents in Spanish only.  That was OK as a small child.  As I grew older, I found that I could not express myself adequately in Spanish. Consequently, I was unable to share so many things with my mother.

“We always said there were 10 children in our family; however, there were actually 12. In the trousseau trunk, Mother had two little locks of hair tied with ribbons. One, very small, was a beautiful silky golden blond. The other, a little larger, was a dark brown. They belonged to the two little girls who had died in infancy of scarlet fever, Lugarda 18 months old and Aurelia 5 months old.

“My sister Candida, called Connie, was 23 years older than I and had gone to the convent of the Blessed Sacrament Sisters in Marty, S.D., before I was born. One day I found my mother crying as she read a letter.  Candida was coming home because of poor health.  I sometimes wonder if the religious vocation taken from her was given to me. 

“After Connie and the two infants who died, there were Art and Arnold, and then Bernarda. She joined the Victory Noll Sisters when that community was just beginning. Soon she was sent to Panama to help establish a native religious community. [Ben and Joe came after Bernarda, and next came Rose]. From the time I was a little girl, older relatives would see me and say how much I looked like Rose.  Not only that, I wanted to be like her. Emerald was my blue-eyed sister, seven years older.  I was 9 when she left Las Animas to attend a Catholic high school in Denver. Mark, my green-eyed brother (but not a monster!) is the only one of my siblings with whom I remember growing up.

“When I started school, a wonderful new world opened up to me. After I learned to read, you couldn’t stop me. I’d read everything by an author I liked; during the summer I read ‘tons’ of books. I loved school and was proud of my perfect attendance almost every year.  Early on, I was drawn to math and science. I was blessed with excellent, dedicated teachers.  

“There were three major decisions in my life which set the course for my future. The first decision was my move to Denver in my sophomore year of high school [to] attend St. Joseph High School. I had always dreamed of someday attending Denver University, [but] I knew I couldn’t afford DU, [so] I decided I would follow in Rose’s footsteps and attend Barnes Business College. I received a scholarship to Barnes, had my registration fee in and was all set to start in the fall. Sometime during the summer my best friend told me that she was going to Loretto Heights College. She had a work scholarship. Well, she wasn’t more than a ‘B’ student, so I thought if she can do it, so can I. I went out to the Heights to investigate the possibilities. Sure enough, I was welcomed with open arms. There I met the Sisters of Loretto. Had I not moved to Denver, I know that at Bent County High School I would have received a full scholarship to DU … and probably never would have met the Sisters of Loretto.

“My second major decision was to become a Sister of Loretto. The notion came to me as a freshman, but I did not want to be a nun.  But to be a Sister of Loretto, I had to be a nun! I asked God to let me know what he wanted me to do — or to quit bugging me. By the end of my freshman year, I knew what the answer was. … The decision was made [but] it was still far in the future, as I had three more years of college and then maybe graduate school. By my senior year, I knew the time had come — and I wanted it. I am thankful for this decision in my life and have never regretted it.

“The spring of my senior year at Loretto Heights I told my parents that I was going to be a Sister of Loretto. Dad said I couldn’t choose a better life. And Mother — who really knew me very well — asked me if I could wear the clothes that would be demanded of me.

“The day I left for the convent we were almost ready to go to the train station when Dad called me into their bedroom. He said they wanted to give me their blessing. I was told to kneel down and they both placed their hands on my head and prayed over me. I felt so honored and humbled! Though I knew this was a Spanish custom, it was not something we usually did, and I was not expecting it.

“The three years of my novitiate in Kentucky were a happy time. Though we were treated like children and never allowed to make even minor decisions, I knew that if this kind of training had produced the women I knew and admired, all would turn out all right. [I combined my mother’s name with part of mine and became Sister Imelda Therese.] 

“In 1953 I started teaching high school chemistry, math and science in the small town of Lebanon, Ky. That first year was very difficult. I had five different preps and not enough time. For the first time in my life, I was homesick and missed my mother — at age 26! I was sent to the Heights for a summer physics course. Because I was at the Heights, my family visited often that summer. Had it not been for that summer in Denver, I would never have seen my dad alive again, and he would never have seen me as a nun.  He died suddenly of a heart attack the winter before my final vows.

“[From my beginning in Lebanon, I went on to Loretto high schools in Elizabethtown Ky., Mora, N.M., Santa Fe, N.M., and Springfield, Mo., while working on my master’s degree at Creighton University.] 1963, the year after I received my master’s, I was sent to teach freshman chemistry at Webster College. That was a tremendously exciting year. I was told that next year I was to start working for my doctorate. I sent out applications and was accepted at three universities; I chose the University of Kansas at Lawrence. I loved KU and made many great friends but started out with too many courses and got in way over my head. For the first time in my life, I received a low grade, and I started thinking of how many years this would take.  Instead of finding someone to discuss this with and getting some good advice and help, I made a decision.  I wrote to my Provincial and told her that I didn’t think this was for me. She accepted my decision. This is a decision that I sometimes look back on and wonder how different my life would have been teaching in college versus teaching in high school. Do I have regrets? Since my life of having chosen a different path has been so rich, I have to say no.

“[Twenty-six years and 10 schools, ended with a year at Loretto in El Paso and nine years at Nerinx Hall in St. Louis]. I knew I should be moving back to Denver; my mother was getting older. I was hired at Central Catholic High School, [but] the school was not the place for me. It was time to try something new. I went to floral design school and worked as a floral designer, first in a small shop, later in a bigger company not as pleasant. After seven years, [though], I began yearning for the academic atmosphere again. I left the floral business to work as a homebound teacher plus one night a week at the Homework Hot Line. Then I got a job at Beth Jacob High School, a private, orthodox Jewish girls high school. I learned to love Beth Jacob and my Jewish girls and spent 15 years there! It was 2000 when I finally retired at age 73. Then I took up volunteer GED teaching and tutoring for the Adult Learning Source for 11 years!

“My life has been truly rich and exciting. I’ve had educational and travel opportunities and the opportunity to make a difference in the lives of many young people. I’ve had the joy of living in a Community of dedicated women who have nourished me with love, inspiration, challenges, support and friendship.”

A wake for Sister Imelda Therese took place May 21, with her funeral Mass May 22, both at Loretto Motherhouse. Loretto Co-member the Rev. Marty Lally presided at the Mass. Following Mass, a green burial took place at Our Lady of Sorrows Cemetery on the Motherhouse grounds.

Please keep I.T., her family and all her loved ones in your prayers. May she rest in peace.