Skip to content
The Catholic Leader
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute
No Result
View All Result
The Catholic Leader
No Result
View All Result
Home People

This 93-year-old dynamo is still busy with God’s ‘housekeeping’

byPeter Bugden
3 December 2019 - Updated on 1 April 2021
Reading Time: 7 mins read
AA

Dorothy Russell: “Deep down, I’m happy I’m a Catholic.” Photo: Joe Higgins

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
Dorothy Russell: “Deep down, I’m happy I’m a Catholic.” Photo: Joe Higgins

NINETY-three-year-old Dorothy Russell landed in hospital after a fall at home recently, and her parish felt the pain.

With Dorothy laid up and the parish priest away, there was no-one to open the church for Mass on Saturday.

That was the first sign of how much the Darra-Jindalee parish, in Brisbane’s west, relies on Dorothy.

And it soon dawned on parishioners that this diminutive dynamo was doing far more than anyone had realised — much of it in the background.

Dorothy believes that’s been behind someone in the parish nominating her for the recent Community Leader Awards hosted by The Catholic Leader.

She was a finalist in the Volunteer of the Year category and Archbishop Mark Coleridge was one of the many to marvel at the tireless achievements for someone of such age.

Dorothy, of course, was a little embarrassed and could think of many other people who she considered should’ve been there in her place.

Although she wasn’t the eventual winner, she almost stole the show and she had a ball.

Only a few months earlier she was lying in the Mater Hospital in great pain.

Fortunately, there were no broken bones, only severe bruising and shock.

Related Stories

Meet the winners of the 2017 Community Leader Awards

Fifteen Catholics from across Queensland named finalists for the Community Leader Awards

Roby Curtis not turning a blind eye to homeless

“I was in a bad shape for a few weeks, and that’s when all this (fuss about what she does in the parish) happened …,” she said.

“Nobody knew what I did (around the parish), and there are a few jobs I’m doing (while the parish priest was absent), so there was nobody to open the church at 5 o’clock on Saturday night.

“I think a couple of the collectors didn’t turn up … Nobody knew what I did, and I really didn’t know what I did myself, because I just automatically …

“So that’s when all this has started. I got a shock when they told what they were doing.

“So this is why I am now trying to step back, that they’ve got to keep doing what they’re doing, just in case something like that happens to me again.

“And, also, they’ve got to take over, different ones to do it.

“Since then Dorothy’s been very quiet … Hopefully, I’m back on duty.”

And “back on duty”, for the evergreen livewire who still drives her car, plays bridge in the city once a week, and goes to Vinnies and Probus meetings, can mean quite a lot – from arranging collectors at Mass, operating the St Vincent de Paul Society’s piety stall, to washing altar cloths and being the source of knowledge to answer all sorts of questions about parish operations.

Dorothy points to others who take Communion to the sick and elderly once a week, to deflect attention from herself.

“I don’t do any of that kind of stuff. That’s why I feel if anybody should’ve been going in this (Community Leader Awards), it should’ve been the likes of them,” she said.

“That’s what they’re doing; I’m only trying to … well, I just washed the alter cloths …”

But she acknowledges that much of what she does helps keeps other aspects of parish life going.

She calls it “housekeeping”.

“I say I just do some of the ‘housekeeping’ around the parish and that’s about all,” she said.

And a lot comes under “housekeeping”.

“Yeah … well, it does in your own house, doesn’t it? You just do everything to keep the place going,” Dorothy said.

Living only a stone’s throw from the Church of the Twelve Apostles at Jindalee for the past 27 years, it was only natural that she’d be called to do the little things that help “keep the place going”.

“As a parent you just kind of get involved in the school work first, and we just kind of got involved here (in the parish) …,” she said.

When another busy couple of parishioners were leaving Darra-Jindalee, they said, “Well, Dorothy, the church is just up the road there … you can do this  …”

“So I just did it,” she said.

For years, she’s been operating the St Vincent de Paul Society piety stall at the church and is a Vinnies member, and associate life member now.

She welcomes parishioners to weekend Masses, and another parish member said, because she’s so involved Dorothy was able to answer anyone’s queries about the parish and give directions to the best contacts.

“Working on the St Vincent de Paul stall, you’re there at the church, there’s no office staff working of a weekend and, because you’re there on a regular basis, people just expect you’re going to be able to answer their questions … And you do get to know who’s the one to be doing what …,” Dorothy said.

“And that’s how all things have started … I never went looking for anything but I found out recently that I’ve been doing a hell of a lot and I didn’t realise that I did it.

“… And just living here (so close to the church), and if they’ve got somebody coming into the office, for instance, and they’re having a funeral, the first thing Father seemed to do was offer them a cup of tea after, so then you get the phone call, ‘Oh, Dorothy, I’ve got so and so here …’, so you either run up there and meet the people or have a conversation.”

It’s not been a burden for someone so cheery and obliging.  

“It’s enjoyable, because you’re meeting people and, because you are around, it’s surprising what families will ask you something about what’s happening at the church, so you just tell them the best that you know,” she said.

Keeping busy is what gives her energy, she said.

“It’s the friends I’ve made; now, that’s where you get (the energy). It’s the people that you mix with …,” she said.

“I’m just thinking of all those ones up at Care and Concern – because they’re involved in things, they’ll ring and say, ‘Hey, have you got a half-hour or something, could you come and do this?’

“So you just get up and do … If there’s enough doing it, well, I’ll sit at home doing knitting or crossword puzzle or something like that.

“I’m just hoping I can keep going …,” she said.

Being so busy, Dorothy said she was someone who “in a kind of way” prayed on the run.

She said having a Presbyterian mother and a Catholic father, had given her a “rounded” faith. And influenced the way she lived it.

“Go back 93 years ago, the Catholic Church only had Mass on a Sunday morning, so my mother was the one, being a Presbyterian, raised us as Catholics, because my father couldn’t go to Mass – he was a milkman, he was delivering the milk,” she said.

“I don’t really sit down and kneel down and pray … I do just anytime and say ‘Please, God, help me get through this …’ or something like that.

“Deep down, I’m happy I’m a Catholic.”

And the Mass was the main reason for that.

“It’s the Mass, more than anything else …,” she said.

“I say a prayer every morning and every night, and whenever I want something during the day … (she laughs)

“I just enjoy going to Mass …

“I’m not a person that runs to Mass every day but, just when I’m there, I’m lost in it.”

And Dorothy’s fellow parishioners love having her there.

One of them cleans Dorothy’s window shutters once a month.

“I get a bit spoilt; I don’t know why …,” Dorothy said.

“One, because you’ve been a very wonderful person to all of us …,” her parishioner friend said on the most recent cleaning day.

ShareTweet
Previous Post

Graduating Indigenous students told to ‘dream big’ and ‘keep achieving’

Next Post

Brisbane light, holy night – telling the nativity story on the stonework of St Stephen’s Cathedral

Peter Bugden

Related Posts

Community Leader Award winners
Australia

Meet the winners of the 2017 Community Leader Awards

22 November 2017 - Updated on 1 April 2021
awards nominees
News

Fifteen Catholics from across Queensland named finalists for the Community Leader Awards

26 October 2017 - Updated on 1 April 2021
Roby Curtis blind eye
News

Roby Curtis not turning a blind eye to homeless

16 August 2017 - Updated on 1 April 2021
Next Post

Brisbane light, holy night – telling the nativity story on the stonework of St Stephen's Cathedral

Four new deacons of Brisbane

Meet the new white-collar workers of Brisbane

Marist Fathers farewelled in Gladstone

Marist Fathers farewelled in Gladstone after 118 years

Popular News

  • Angel’s Kitchen serves hot meals to the hungry in Southport

    Angel’s Kitchen serves hot meals to the hungry in Southport

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Nationwide rosary event happening for Australia’s patroness this Saturday

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Hearts ‘fused’ together living their vocation

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Here are the stories of 10 new saints being canonised this Sunday

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
  • Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI turned 95 on a ‘very happy’ day

    0 shares
    Share 0 Tweet 0
Search our job finder
No Result
View All Result

Latest News

Br Alan Moss remembered for a life of faith and learning
QLD

Br Alan Moss remembered for a life of faith and learning

by Staff writers
19 May 2022
0

CHRISTIAN Brother Alan Moss was remembered by his friends, family and fellow brothers for his gifted mind,...

Catholic relationship advisers offer five tips to look after your mental health

Nationwide rosary event happening for Australia’s patroness this Saturday

19 May 2022
Francis offers advice on politics: Seek unity, don’t get lost in conflict

Francis offers advice on politics: Seek unity, don’t get lost in conflict

19 May 2022
Holiness is possible and the Church provides tools to attain it, cardinal says

Holiness is possible and the Church provides tools to attain it, cardinal says

18 May 2022
Church workers have helped more than 1.2 million Ukrainians during the war, Caritas says

Church workers have helped more than 1.2 million Ukrainians during the war, Caritas says

18 May 2022

Never miss a story. Sign up to the Weekly Round-Up
eNewsletter now to receive headlines directly in your email.

Sign up to eNews
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Contact
  • Contribute
  • Jobs
  • Subscribe

The Catholic Leader is an Australian award-winning Catholic newspaper that has been published by the Archdiocese of Brisbane since 1929. Our journalism seeks to provide a full, accurate and balanced Catholic perspective of local, national and international news while upholding the dignity of the human person.

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader
Accessibility Information | Privacy Policy | Archdiocese of Brisbane

The Catholic Leader acknowledges Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people as the First Peoples of this country and especially acknowledge the traditional owners on whose lands we live and work throughout the Catholic Archdiocese of Brisbane.

No Result
View All Result
  • Home
  • News
    • QLD
    • Australia
    • Regional
    • Education
    • World
    • Vatican
  • Features
  • Opinion
  • Life
    • Family
    • Relationships
    • Faith
  • Culture
  • People
  • Subscribe
  • Jobs
  • Contribute

Copyright © All Rights Reserved The Catholic Leader

0
    0
    Your Cart
    Your cart is emptyChoose another Subscription
    Continue Shopping