Age 91
Sister Terena found deep joy in the classroom, where her gentle spirit and unwavering patience nurtured generations of young learners. Her love of teaching was inseparable from her commitment to the Sisters of Mercy, whose charism of compassion and service she embodied daily.
She first met the Sisters of Mercy at Trenton’s Cathedral High School where the Sisters of Mercy taught. At the age of 20, she entered the Sisters of Mercy in Watchung, New Jersey. She earned a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Georgian Court University in Lakewood, New Jersey. Sister Terena began her ministry, teaching the primary grades at Our Lady Star of the Sea in Atlantic City, New Jersey. Over the next 30 years, she taught at parish elementary schools in Bordentown, Perth Amboy, Bound Brook, and Phillipsburg, New Jersey.
In 1990, she went to St. Paul School in Princeton, New Jersey, where she taught second grade, reading enrichment in all primary grades, and served on the professional staff as a spiritual and education consultant for a total of for 26 years. Her devotion to the school, parish, and families in Princeton is legendary.
Sister Terena also had a deep and ardent affection for the New York Yankees and a special affinity for Derek Jeter! Sister Terena radiated the grace of a life devoted to faith, education, and community, as she spent her final years at McAuley Hall Health Care Center in Watchung, New Jersey, in a community that she loved.