I found this article on line about the Motherhouse of the Servite Sisters in "The Servite Sisters Today, Fall, 2010." "In a special meeting on February 22, 2010, the Servite sisters approved the sale of their motherhouse in Ladysmith to Indianhead Community Action Agency, that has a mission of compassionate service as a not-for-profit organization, serving Rusk County, and nine other rural counties in upper Wisconsin. The sale of the motherhouse was prompted by a steady decline in the number of Sisters living there, coupled with rising operation and maintenance costs. The 1928 structure was not our first motherhouse, but it was the only one most of us ever knew. Many of us were quite young when we entered the convent, some even teenagers. The motherhouse was where we learned to be Servites. Over the years it was the place to which we returned for retreats, chapters, investitures, professions, jubilees, and funerals. In its heyday in the 1960s, the building housed our postulants, novices, and junior sisters. There were also the nursing sisters who worked at our hospital and the nursing home as well as the teaching sisters who taught at our college and high school and at the parish grade school downtown. It was also home to the mother general, the councilors, the secretary, and the treasurer. The sisters who cooked, cleaned, and took care of the chickens and garden lived with a few retired sisters. A Servite friar served as our chaplain. By the time we sold the building earlier this year, there were only nine sisters in residence. We know that change is a natural part of life. Without change, nothing new would ever emerge. There would be no new life, nothing to which to look forward, nothing for which to hope. But the flip side of change is death. For everything new that comes into the world, something old must give way. It is this flip side that makes change such a bittersweet pill to swallow. Someone once said that the only person who really likes change is a wet baby. In the Ladysmith area, the Servite Sisters were involved in developing, constructing, and operating what are now the Rusk County Memorial Hospital and the Nursing Home, as well as the former Mount Senario College, Servite High School, and St. Mary's School of Nursing. They also staffed Our Lady of Sorrows Grade School from the time it opened in 1912 until the mid-1970s, and they have served the parish in a variety of other ways throughout the years. Bishop Christensen in his farewell Mass used the image of the Flambeau River as a comparison to the sisters' move. "The river keeps moving, it doesn't put down roots." He alluded to Scripture, pointing out that where people dwelt with the Lord was often in a tent, which is not the most permanent of structures. "But it's not about the bricks and mortar, it's about the memories that dwell in your hearts. Those you take with you as you continue your journey." They all remembered the great event in Ladysmith, fifty years earlier. Senator John F. Kennedy on St. Patrick's Day, March 17, 1960, made an unscheduled stop at the Servite Sisters Motherhouse during a Democratic Presidential Primary campaign swing through northern Wisconsin. The sisters and postulants, aware that Kennedy's motorcade would be passing by, were standing at the side of the road to wave to the Senator. When Kennedy saw the sisters, he stopped the motorcade and got out to visit with them. The sisters then invited him to the convent, where he prayed briefly in the chapel, before continuing to Ladysmith High School where he spoke to about 400 students and 200 adults." This was a fond farewell to Ladysmith. Have you ever sold a house?
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