Nationality: American
Congregational Register No. 529
D.O.B. 28.12.1910
First Profession: 04.04.1957
Died: 28.04.1991 Aged: 80 years

Helen Navin came from Brookline, Massachusetts, USA, and entered in Winchester, Massachusetts, on 2 October 1954, already a mature woman.

She is remembered as ‘J.A.’ and as being able to turn her hand to anything and everything. One Sister remembered that she had good reason to be grateful for J.A’s ability to “do anything” because when she accidentally dropped a bust of Cardinal Cushing one day, Sr. Joseph Anthony plastered up the face and hat so skillfully that no one could tell that it had ever been broken!

Her ministry was mainly in the USA where she had innumerable contacts. She had been a member of the Catholic Daughters of America, who were among our great helpers.

She edited the USA MMM newsletter for some years. Photography was one of her specialties. She helped with promotion work and mission awareness in general. She was always ready to lend a hand and indeed gave great encouragement to the many MMMs passing through the USA. She was considered a source of strength and encouragement to many. She had a strong, simple faith, believing God loved us so much that God could take care of anything that we did amiss. We must just love God back as best we can.

Her great joy was in her assignment to Tanzania, where she was one of the pioneers of the Hanang Health Project. Ill health prevented her returning to Tanzania, and her final days were spent in Somerville, Massachusetts.

She is buried in Holy Cross Cemetery, Malden, Massachusetts.