Farewell: Sister Rudolph

Many of our readers will be saddened to hear of the death of Sister Rudolph who died on 29 January 2003 at Nazareth House, Cheltenham in the UK The following tribute has been prepared by Joan Kerry, Australian Child Migrant Project Manager.

Many former Child Migrants will remember Sister Rudolph from Nazareth House, Swansea in the 1940s.
Born in Liverpool in 1909, she first became aware of children in orphanages when she and her young sisters would pass Christmas gifts through the railings of Nazareth House in Liverpool.
At the age of 25, she joined the sisters of Nazareth herself. Over the years, she also worked at Bala, Bexhill, Southend, and for a time in New Zealand. In later years, she looked after elderly people (many of whom were younger than she was) at Nazareth House, Cheltenham.
Sister Rudolph always felt that the practice of sending children to Australia was wrong.
She worried about children who had just come through the war years and how they were going to cope with a new life in a new country. She remembered one boy who ran away from the bus which was to take him away from Swansea. He climbed a tree but was dragged back and taken off screaming. She often wondered what happened to him and tried to find him years later.
Sister Rudolph regretted not being able to keep in touch with the children she had known. The sisters were allowed to write only one letter every six months, and of course they wrote home.
Sister Rudolph had a great sense of fun and humour.
Children from Bexhill remembered her playing cricket and, when bowled out, she would light-heartedly complain that “it wasn’t fair” as she couldn’t see properly past her wimple!!
Some former Child Migrants re-established contact with Sister Rudolph and kept in touch with her after having found her again. Many have visited her over the years. Her funeral was attended by former Nazareth House residents from far and wide.
Sister Rudolph was in good heath until earlier this year when she caught flu, dying peacefully on 29 January 2003. She would have been 94 in April. She is dearly missed by all who had the pleasure of knowing her.

Previous Article

Next Article

Printing and Viewing Options...
Print out this article now	View a Printer-Friendly version of the whole newsletter	Open the Adobe PDF version of this newsletter	To bookmark this article, Press 'Ctrl D'

The C-BERSS Online Community
Email this article to a friend	Leave a comment about this article	Read what others have said about this article

Other articles in this newsletter...
The Courage "to Change" Child Migrants' Memorial C-BERS says goodbye... and good luck Catholic Migrant Centre launches brochure for former child migrants We Answer Your Questions About... The Australian Migrant Travel Fund A Personal Reconciliation Maltese Former Child Migrants Tardun Old Boys Waiting Contact	Read other newsletters...