GOOD Samaritan Sister Dolores Carroll believes the key to a long, fulfilling life is study, travel and learning a new language.
The well-travelled nun of 83 years celebrated her 100th birthday on November 4.
On her birthday, Bishop Brian Finnigan celebrated a thanksgiving Mass at Marycrest Hostel, Kangaroo Point, where Sr Dolores lives.
Bishop Finnigan was joined by Bishop Ray Benjamin and 11 priests – Fr Tom Elich, Fr Frank Lourigan, Fr John Chalmers, Fr Ian Wren, Fr James O’Donoghue, Fr Des Holm, Fr John Adili, and Fr Lawrence Ayoub.
Sr Dolores was born in Ballina, NSW, the sixth child of Elizabeth Mae MacDonald, a Scottish, Presbyterian-to-Catholic convert, and John Joseph Carroll, a “strict Irishman” and a strong Catholic.
When she was 12, her mother died of cancer.
“My aunt brought my mother down to Sydney to look after her and I wouldn’t go home – I stayed too,” she said.
“My mother was a very good Presbyterian before she became a Catholic, and I remember she made us say our night prayers.
“She was wonderful.”
The death of her mother was also when her family “disintegrated”.
“From that time on our family, as it were, fell apart,” she said.
“My father, he was a good father, but wasn’t a capable one.”
Sr Dolores lived with her aunt to be closer to school, but would visit her father on weekends.
Her aunt’s family, all Presbyterians, never discouraged the young schoolgirl from being Catholic, something she said helped strengthen her faith.
“I used to hop up every morning, go up to Mass, and I’ve often thought since, how wonderful they were not to question me,” she said.
“The neighbours would know this family was Presbyterian, but here was this Catholic kid going up to Mass every morning.”
A spontaneous visit to her father’s aunt, a teacher and Good Samaritan Sister at St Scholastica’s in Glebe, opened Sr Dolores’ first door in the life of a religious.
Her aunt, too busy to speak with her, sent two young nuns on her behalf instead.
“They asked me what I was going to do, and I said I was interested in getting a degree in Economics and going to Africa,” she said.
“And these nuns said, ‘Well, look, there are five nuns coming over going to enter the Good Samaritans’. I said, ‘What about my university?’ And they said, ‘You can do that when you enter’.
“And they talked on and on, and I thought, ‘Well, this is a good alternative’.
“I didn’t know much about the order as such – nothing; I only knew that my aunt was a Good Samaritan.
“But I took it all in faith.”
On June 3, 1932, Sr Dolores entered Mount St Benedict’s novitiate in Pennant Hills.
She studied to be a teacher at St Scholastica’s Training College and obtained a degree in Science at the University of Sydney.
They also had a priest from the University of Sydney who conducted their religious training.
“I remember very vividly one incident there,” she said.
“I was the last to be examined and I had a lovely little class – the children responded beautifully.
“And at the end the priest went on with my lesson, a religious one on different topics, this one on sanctifying grace.
“When Father finished he put my report in his pocket.
“When each other one finished he gave them back their report with his report and they got an A or A+ on them – they were good, they trained well.
“And I didn’t get one, so I sat down at the bottom of the steps, down at Forest Lodge, dejected, absolutely dejected because I’d failed.
“And one of the other nuns came out and said, ‘What are you doing down there?’
“‘I’m sorry Clare but I’ve failed’, and she said, ‘How do you know?’ ‘Well, Father didn’t give me my report; it’s in his top pocket’.
“So she ran into him, got it, and he came running out and hugged me and I got an A+.
“He had forgotten about my report because he was so interested in the topic.”
Sr Dolores taught or was principal at 11 different schools.
After teaching in Sydney for 10 years, she was asked to begin a high school in Ayr, North Queensland, with several other Good Samaritans.
“It was 1945, we were on an army train, and there were just the army boys in all the carriages, except this carriage of nuns,” she said.
“We got to Townsville and we got food poisoning, so we were very sick that night and the next day.
“The next day I woke up hearing some of the nuns in the dormitory saying, ‘She doesn’t look as though she’s going to be much for North Queensland’.
“They didn’t know I’d woken up, and so I began crying.
“I had my moments.”
In the early 1950s, Sr Dolores worked was principal of St Mary’s College, Kingaroy.
While at Kingaroy, she and four students under her care escaped a near-fatal car accident in Fernvale.
“I don’t know what was happening but I went over the bridge and into the river,” she said.
“Everybody was picnicking round, and they got us out of the water, and they gave us hot drinks.
“Then a lady took us to her place, and the premier, Joh Bjelke-Petersen, rang every hospital in Brisbane and couldn’t find us.”
Miraculously, nobody was injured, and the team went on to win three consecutive debating nights in a row.
They lost in the finals to Somerville House.
“I thought I’d never drive again, but the priest at Kingaroy said we had to, otherwise he said I’d never do anything,” she said.
“I didn’t know what was going to happen, but there were many beautiful stories and the papers were good to us, and we made the headlines in Sydney.
“It was a lot of excitement.”
In October, St Mary’s College, Kingaroy, dedicated the Sr Dolores Carroll Trade Training Centre in her honour.
The building was named after Sr Dolores for her persistence in providing young boys with industrial work training.
“I was worried about their safety, but I think I was more worried about the way they behaved because there was a lolly shop on the way to the hospital – I knew they’d be up to tricks,” she said.
After Kingaroy, she was sent to Japan as a missionary, teaching English and religion in Tokyo and Nagasaki.
She spent 10 years there, learning the language and customs of the Japanese people.
“I thought I knew enough to get by, but they were too quick and I was dumb for about three months and I had to knuckle down and learn,” she said.
“I had to study – I just had to.”
As well as teaching children through to university students, adults and businessmen, Sr Dolores visited shrines and temples to extend her knowledge of Japanese culture.
“Later I was sent to Sasebo, an American base where I taught a Japanese priest how to say Mass in English for the Americans at the house, singing with them, America the beautiful until I myself almost became an American,” she said.
“I came back to Australia a changed person in heart and mind and soul.”
After Japan, Sr Dolores spent 20 years at Grovely before being diagnosed with Meniere’s disease – a disorder of the inner ear that can affect hearing and balance.
She has now lived at Marycrest for five years.
The 100-year-old has enjoyed her adventurous, long life.
“I don’t feel I’m 100 – I just don’t,” she said.
“I didn’t expect to reach 100.
“I was the weakest of our family, and they’ve all died.
“I was the weakest of the 11 in the little group who went in the novitiate with me, and they’ve all died.
“I was the weakest of us, and here I am, and my brain is still alert, but my body is weak.
“I do think, travel has made me stronger in faith and in life in general.
“I enjoyed every place I’ve been.
“The Holy Spirit has guided me wherever I’ve been sent.”
Even though her body is weak, Sr Dolores’ servant spirit is still strong, with her taking up a new ministry at Marcyrest.
“So many people don’t know where they’re going, they don’t know what day it is or so on,” she said.
“I can help them in so many ways, and I can listen, and I’m happy about that.”
