Sister Maria Hélène ND 5348 PDF Download
Cecilia Augusta Logeman
Maria Regina Province, Coesfeld (Tegelen)
Date and Place of Birth November 01, 1938 Solo, Indonesia
Date and Place of Profession July 19, 1969 Tegelen, Netherlands
Date and Place of Death December 03, 2023 Tegelen, Netherlands
Date and Place of Burial December 07, 2023 Tegelen, Netherlands
“Be watchful, for you do not know when the Lord is coming.”
We sang the above text on the morning of December 3, the first Sunday of Advent, without suspecting that the Lord would call Sister Maria Hélène to Himself so suddenly. The Lord called her at an unexpected time, but not unprepared. The unexpected death of our co-sister reminds us that the ultimate goal of our lives is the Father’s house.
Cecilia (Ciel) was born in Solo, Java, Indonesia. She grew up with her brother in a family where the father was Protestant and the mother Catholic. Both children were baptized, but grew up without any further religious education.
It was at the time when the Japanese army ruled Indonesia. The father was picked up by the Japanese and sent to work on the Burmese railroad. The mother and the two children stayed with their grandparents at this time. Mother was already showing the first signs of Parkinson’s disease.
In 1947, the family moved to the Netherlands. Her brother went to study in Delft and her father returned to Indonesia for five years. When her mother’s illness worsened, Ciel was sent to a boarding school in Soest, where she attended a school for home economics.
Her father returned to the Netherlands, but died suddenly two days after his arrival. Her brother was killed in a motorcycle accident and her mother died when Ciel had almost finished school. Ciel was 15 years old at the time. On her deathbed, her mother asked if Ciel wanted to immerse herself more in the Catholic faith. She did.
She received her first communion and was confirmed. A brother of her father and his wife lovingly took her into their family.
At the age of 18, she went to work in a children’s home run by the Sisters of Notre Dame. It was here that her vocation to become a religious matured. She joined our sisters in 1969. For many years she worked in various kitchens of our Congregation. Then she went to Weert, where she worked for many years in the rectory in the Boshoven district. Then she came to Tegelen to retire.
In recent years, she was the one who provided the fish with enough food every day. We have to do that now, and pampering the dogs is another task we have been given.
We will miss her for her unique personality, which was always full of life and humor.
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