Sister Mary Anita, the former Emma Giguere, daughter of Thomas Giguere and Elise Poulin of Dexter, died on Nov. 12. She entered the Sisters of Mercy in 1912. She was a graduate of Dexter High School and received her teaching degree from St. Joseph's College.
Sister's teaching career in the Diocese of Portland took her to Old Town, Sanford, Fairfield, Biddeford, Lewiston, Portland, and to both St. Mary's and St. John's Schools in Bangor. Sister Anita served the Congregation as superior in the following convents: St. Mary's, Presque Isle; St. Ann's Indian Island; St. Joseph's, Old Town; and Our Lady of the Rosary Convent, Brownville Junction.
When Sister retired, she came to St. Joseph's Motherhouse in Portland in 1970 where she did part-time work for a few years showing happy witness of her dedication to the life she had chosen.
In 1939, the Community celebrated Sister Anita's Silver Jubilee; in 1964 her Golden Jubilee, and shortly after the observance of her Diamond Jubilee in 1974, her health began to decline and soon she was admitted to the Convent infirmary.
As a teacher in the elementary grades, Sister Mary Anita exhibited outstanding professional qualities. She seemed to be capable of motivating and stimulating pupils in the learning process by many of her personally made devices in a day when visual and audio aids were far and few between.
One of Sister Anita's characteristics, that so many of her friends will remember, was her special love for nature.
During her several years in the Infirmary, Sister Anita was a living example of a Religious woman's wholehearted dedication to prayer and to the patient acceptance of the will of God. The personal gentleness that pervaded her whole life was evident in her final years even at the moment of her death when - as Father Hammer, put it in his homily - "She slipped thru' the veil of this life into the Presence of her Lord".
Her funeral in the Motherhouse Chapel was concelebrated on Nov. 14 by nine priests with Fr. James Hammer, O.F.M. cap., as principal celebrant and homilist.
Sister CAtherine McCallan
Sister Mary Amata
The Church World, Dec. 3, 1981