Age 98
Inspired by her motto, “Make my heart according to Your Heart,” Sister Timothy’s life-long commitment to the people of God was characterized by her tender-hearted care for the vulnerable, especially women and children.
Born in Altoona, Pennsylvania, Sister Timothy entered the Sisters of Mercy in Dallas, Pennsylvania, at the age of 18. After completing her studies at College Misericordia (now Misericordia University), in Dallas, Pennsylvania, Sister Timothy spent her early years teaching elementary school in the Altoona, Harrisburg and Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania dioceses.
While she enjoyed her young students, she yearned for a ministry in health care, a deep desire enkindled by her mother who was a nurse and her father who was a surgeon. At the age of 33, Sister Timothy earned her nursing diploma at Mercy Hospital School of Nursing in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Not long after, she received a bachelor’s degree in nursing from Catholic University, in Washington, D.C., and her masters’ degree, with a specialization in maternity nursing, from Columbia University, in New York, New York. Ultimately, Sister Timothy studied midwifery at Temple University, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Throughout her years of studying, she also was a nursing instructor at Mount Aloysius College in Cresson, Pennsylvania, Mercy Hospital School of Nursing in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, and Mercy Hospital School of Nursing in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. The highlight of Sister Timothy’s ministerial life was her work for more than a decade as a nurse-midwife at St. Mary Hospital and director of a birth center, Florida Community Health, both in West Palm Beach, Florida.
Although she preferred others to see her strong exterior, in her own graceful way she was compassionately attending to the needs of others.