Rosary club finally comes to end of five decades

For 55 years, Mrs. Brach and her sister were part of an informal group of 15 friends and relatives -- most of them parishioners at St. Stephen's Church in Hagaman -- who believed in the power of the Rosary and gathered to prove it.

At a yearly meeting, each member was assigned one decade of the Rosary to pray and one accompanying mystery to contemplate. Thus, every day for more than half-a-century, the members prayed one Rosary together. If a member passed away or left, a new one was brought in to take her place.

BY focusing on one decade or one mystery, Sister Marietta hoped to "keep that mystery the whole year. You don't forget it."

End of era

The society has experienced the death of so many members that the sisters said it was "impossible to keep track."

Throughout the history of the group, members have collected dues to pay for a final gesture of thanks and respect: having a month of Masses said for the soul of the deceased. On the night of that person's wake, the members would gather at the funeral home to say the Rosary. "That was the way we'd say goodbye," Mrs. Brach said.

All of the women involved were "very faithful to the Rosary. They stuck to us," according to Sister Marietta.

Slowing down

"The women would tell old stories, and sometimes they didn't want to go home," Mrs. Brach recalled. "Those meetings brought a lot of joy to the members. It was a place where they could pour their hearts out."

But Sister Marietta, who served as the group's president, is among those who began to find it demanding to keep up her responsibilities when faced with growing disabilities.

"Everything went," she lamented. "I drove motorcycles. I drove mopeds. I drove cars. And it was all taken away from me."

"She did everything but Rollerblade," her sister quipped.

Amen

"Nobody wanted to volunteer," she said. "We had no choice but to disband and say our Holy Rosary privately. We just say it by ourselves now."

"We had it for so long," Mrs. Brach said. "When we told them, a lot of women had tears in their eyes. If we were younger, we would start all over again. We didn't want it to break. It will leave a scar."

(10-17-02) [[In-content Ad]]