Nationality: Irish
Congregational Register No: 253
D.O.B. 10.05.1919
First Profession: 06.04.1953
Died: 01.06.2006 Aged: 87 years

Josephine Flood came from a farming family in Ballyhist, Kells, Co. Meath. She had four brothers and one sister. Josephine was very short of stature and physically challenged from the time she was a child, but in spite of the restrictions that her physical disability placed on her, she did her best to live as full a life as possible.  Before joining MMM in 1949, at the age of 31, Josephine had worked at a presbytery for some time and had clerical and secretarial experience.  When she entered MMM, Josephine took the name Sr. Mary Carmela.

Sr. M. Carmela worked in ‘Peg’s Corner’ in the MMM magazine initially and then went on to a variety of clerical and secretarial positions in Beechgrove, Mount Oliver in Bettystown, and the IMTH.  She worked in the medical records department from 1967 to 1982.

In 1982, Josephine was assigned to the USA and lived in Chicago for three years, helping with secretarial duties and parish ministry.  In 1985, she returned to Ireland, where she worked first in Drogheda and then for several years in two of the Dublin houses, Rosemount and Realt na Mara, on telephone and guest duties.  She returned to the Motherhouse in 1997 due to increasing ill health.  Josephine was a member of Cana community from 1997 until 2004, when she moved to Áras Mhuire.

Josephine was a very integrated person and was not inhibited by her deformity. She was a very outgoing and a sociable person and made friends easily. Although considered the delicate one of the family, she outlived all her siblings. Her brother Peter, who was seven years her junior, died a year to the day before Josephine and his passing was a great blow to her. He visited her frequently and she talked often of how much she missed him in the months before her death.  Her nephews and nieces were also very good to her and visited often, especially during her final months.

Josephine was admitted to Our Lady of Lourdes Hospital in May 2006. In spite of the best of care there was little improvement in her condition and on the 25th she returned to Áras Mhuire. The staff took loving care of her and she passed away peacefully on the evening of 1 June.