PUBLISHED BY MOSHOLU PRESERVATION CORPORATION

Remembering a ‘Connector’
Sr. Annunciata Bethell Dies at 90

By ALEX KRATZ

Toward the end of her extraordinarily active and devout life, Sister Annunciata Bethell played a role in a modern miracle.

Every day of the week, throughout the summer of 2004, Patricia Burlace, Sr. Annunciata’s assistant and protégée at her beloved senior center, would drive the elderly advocate to the Children’s Hospital at Montefiore Medical Center to visit conjoined, and then separated, twins Carl and Clarence Aguirre and their mother, Arlene.

The Aguirre’s story received attention from both local and international media because it marked the first time twins conjoined at the head had been successfully separated. But Sr. Annunciata wasn’t there trying to bask in the spotlight, she was simply there to provide support and guidance to a family going through a difficult time.

“She was so touched and honored to be part of their success,” Burlace said.

At that point in her life, Sr. Annunciata was dealing with her own physical ailments, Burlace said, but up until the very end she dedicated herself to others.

“She lived a lifetime with a commitment to helping others,” Burlace said.

Sr. Annunciata died on Nov. 12 at the age of 90 at Montefiore.

Born in the northwest Bronx on April 4, 1916 — in the middle of World War I — young Annunciata Bethell decided to dedicate her life to religion and community service at an early age. She entered the Ursuline Bedford Park Convent after graduating from the Academy of Mt. St. Ursula at the age of 16 and became a nun in 1935. She celebrated her 70th anniversary as a nun last fall.

Sister Annunciata, or just “Sister” as friends and colleagues called her, believed strongly in education. She was well educated herself, earning a B.A. in Education and an M.S. in Religious Education from Fordham University as well as a master’s in Social Work from Hunter College.

Throughout and after gaining her own education, Sr. Annunciata worked to mold young minds in the Bronx, teaching at several Catholic elementary schools in the borough, including St. Jerome’s Parochial, St. Angela’s, Our Lady of Mercy, St. Philip Neri and the Ursuline School.

While she spent much of her career educating youth, Sr. Annunciata began shifting her focus to the other end of the age spectrum as she grew older herself. In 1972, she transformed the St. Philip Neri Leisure Time Club into the Bedford Park Multi-Service Center for Seniors. The Center survived a ghastly fire that gutted St. Philip Neri Church in 1997 (only closing for a single day as Sr. Annunciata scraped and scrounged to keep providing services for her seniors at various locations), relocating to a brand new building on East 204th Street, which was renamed the Sister Annunciata Bethell Senior Center in 2002 in her honor.

“Indeed, over these many years, I and the staff have endeavored to be the “missing link” in the lives of our elderly friends of the northwest Bronx!” Sr. Annunciata wrote in 2002.

Her office, in the basement of the new facility, is filled with scrapbook pictures and remains exactly the way she left it after falling ill in 2005. Burlace says the Center is filled with so many awards and proclamations for Sister that she can’t find enough wall space to hang them.

Sr. Annunciata, who was often referred to as “The Big A” (not for her stature, mind you – she stood barely 5 feet tall in heels – but because of “the enormity of what she did,” Burlace says), made a name for herself not only as an educator and a provider for seniors, but also because of her strong presence in community affairs.

In his homily, Father Arthur Mastrolia remembers Sr. Annunciata “moving deftly through the maze of social services,” adding later that “I called her a connector. We relied on The Big A to connect us.”

In addition to her duties at the senior center, Sr. Annunciata fought for others in other capacities, as a member of several committees and boards, including the Quality Care Committee at Montefiore, the board of directors at the Mosholu Preservation Corporation (which publishes this newspaper), the Bronx Community Home Advisory Board, the Montefiore Advisory Board, and the Montefiore Board of Trustees, among others.

Maureen Milton, who served as assistant director next to Sr. Annunciata at the senior center for more than 20 years, spoke about her good friend at the legendary nun’s Mass two weeks ago.

“All of us are better for knowing her,” she said, fighting back tears and summing up the sentiments of many. “We’re all glad you spent your life in our little corner of the Bronx.”

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