April 6, 2018 at 1:53 p.m.

Nun has known three centuries


By KATE BLAIN- | Comments: 0 | Leave a comment

She was a toddler during the Spanish-American War and nearly a centenarian when U.S. soldiers fought in the Persian Gulf.

With the 21st century on the horizon, 103-year-old Sister Alice Madden, RSM, has stopped hoping for world peace.

"I never expect to have peace in the world," she told The Evangelist. "When I was younger and we were growing up, you expected no fighting. Today, there's fighting around the world, I think."

Troy childhood

Sister Alice, who celebrated her birthday in October, was born in Troy in 1896. A four-year-old at the turn of the 20th century, she said that "I didn't know what that `thing' was -- see, for me, it was a thing."

Her parents ran a corner grocery store in Troy and sent their daughter to St. Joseph's School, across the street from their home. The Mercy Sister proudly called it "the most popular school in Troy."

"I used to run around, but when I got older, I did help out" at the store, she remembered. "I used to do the books. My mother would say, `Oh, I don't want to do them,' almost like a cry. I didn't, neither!"

Horses and house calls

These days, Sister Alice's memory isn't what it once was, but she did recall that her father refused to drive a car, preferring the more familiar form of transportation known as the horse. Sister Alice herself once thought a woman she saw must be "high-class" after seeing her step onto a bus on 4th Street in Troy, because "people didn't get the bus much."

She also noted that it was not unusual in her day for a neighborhood doctor to make house calls. "We knew he was there, and if we'd get sick, we'd say, `Call doctor so-and-so," she said matter-of-factly.

Sister Alice can't remember what made her choose the Sisters of Mercy -- after graduating from Troy Business College, she said, "I just came in" -- but declared herself "satisfied" with her 65 years of religious life.

Teaching career

For 25 years, she was a teacher at Our Lady of Victory School in Troy. In 1975, she was named an "Outstanding Elementary Teacher of America."

Sister Rita Carr, RSM, activities director at McAuley Residence in Albany (where Sister Alice now lives), boasted that Sister Alice was a wonderful teacher. "I really did make them" learn, Sister Alice conceded.

Having experienced a century of education, she believes that parents are less conscientious than they once were about their children's education.

"In those days, things were different. Some people were very careful to send the child to school," she stated. "Today, I don't think they're as careful. In some ways, I think it's more difficult for the teacher."

Three centuries

Sister Alice worked in the office at Mercy High School in Albany until she was 95 years old. "For me, that was just `go over and just do something,'" she explained.

She shrugged off the fact that her life is about to span three centuries. "I don't think much about it," she said of her age. "I don't get fazed with it."

Although Sister Rita said that Sister Alice likes to spend time with people at McAuley Residence, the centenarian doesn't have plans for the millennium: "It doesn't hit me with anything that I should do."

(12-23-99) [[In-content Ad]]


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