26.09.1940 – 12.10.2024

Sr. Sheila Berthiaume was born in Canada, but the family moved to USA when she was an infant and made their home in Detroit, Michigan. She was one of four siblings, two girls and two boys. Her early education was in Detroit, and she entered MMM at the age of eighteen.

Already drawn towards the healing profession (she worked as a nurse’s aid part time during her teenage years), she went on to study Medicine in Ireland at University College, Dublin and gained all her post graduate training in the International Missionary Training Hospital (now Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital) in Drogheda. She specialized in surgery and had both paediatric and obstetrical/ gynaecological experience and was a qualified surgeon, FRCS Edinburgh Scotland.

Her assignment to East Africa began in 1970. Most of her work was in Tanzania, in both Makiungu and Dareda Hospitals, but she also had brief periods of relief work in Uganda.

Sr. Sheila was noted for her gentleness and kindness. She loved music and celebrated every holiday with beautiful decorations which she treasured from year to year. She was also very fond of flowers and plants and had a special love for turtles! Her love of music continued right up to the end of her life taking joy tapping her feet and keeping time to the music.

n 1996, Sr. Sheila returned to the USA to care for her elderly father, but afterwards returned to Tanzania and was the surgeon In Makiungu Hospital until she finally returned home in 2012. She cared for her brother, Dick, during his long illness.

Sr. Sheila lived for some years with her brother Gary in Chicago, but as her own health needs became more pressing, she returned to the MMM community in Somerville MA and her final years were in the Mary Immaculate Nursing Care facility in Lawrence, MA. Sr. Joanne Bierl MMM and the staff were with her when she quietly slipped away on October 12th, 2024. She will be deeply missed by her sister Gail and her husband Horst, her brother Gary, and all her family members and by her MMM sisters and the many whose life she touched. Her life was celebrated at a memorial service in Somerville MA on 4 November 2024.