A wild century-long ride: 100-year-old ex-nun went from small town Minnesota to Bogota
DAYTONA BEACH — Marjorie Gallagher could have traveled the expected path for a young woman born in 1923 and become a wife and mother in her small Minnesota hometown.
But Gallagher's thirst for adventure lifted her out of the rural Midwestern community where her family was deeply rooted and carried her off to South America, New York City and Florida.
She ventured into the Amazon. She drove through the mountains of Colombia, and had a frightening encounter with guerilla militants there. She worked as a nun and nurse in Bogota, helped start schools in that country's capital city for kids and nurses, and directed a nursing program in a Colombian hospital.
She was a nun for 30 years, then closed that chapter of her life, settled in New York City and got married.
As she celebrates her 100th birthday this weekend, she has no regrets over how she's spent the past century.
"Everything in my life was governed by God," she said.
Gallagher has showed Father Time who's boss. She played tennis well into her 90s, she went for walks until a recent health problem sidelined her, and she used to ride a three-wheeled bicycle around the Woodmark assisted living community in Holly Hill she now calls home.
"Marge Gallagher is a delightful lady," said Marilyn Sapsford, a friend who helps Gallagher when she needs a hand. "She is very friendly to everyone, and most folks love to see her."
Gallagher was in her early 50s when she got married, so she never had children. Her husband died in 2005, and most of her family lives outside Florida.
But on Saturday her friends, cousins, nieces and nephews found their way to eastern Volusia County and celebrated her Dec. 18 birthday at a local restaurant.
Becoming Sister Maeve
Gallagher's dark hair has turned as white as a fresh blanket of Minnesota snow, but when she looks at a large framed family photograph from the early 1930s, the smile of a little girl emerges.
The picture was shot in the living room of her childhood home on Elm Street in Owatonna, Minn. Wearing her Sunday best dress, Gallagher appears to have been about 11 years old when the photo was taken.
The picture is a chance for Gallagher to travel back nearly 90 years and see her parents, her sister and her six brothers. She remembers how her family all packed together in their three-story house, and even found space for boarders for a while.
Gallagher became a second mother to her sister and three little brothers since her mother was also a nurse and stayed busy with work.
Her father managed the family-owned seed and fertilizer store and later became the postmaster of Owatonna.
Gallagher attended Catholic schools, and she graduated from high school in 1941. To earn money for college, she worked for a year in her family's flower store.
Once she had enough money to cover tuition, she enrolled in the College of St. Teresa in Winona, Minn.
"In the middle of my second year, I decided to join the convent. It just came to me," Gallagher said.
She entered the convent with the Sisters of St. Francis in Rochester and took the name Sister Maeve. She also became a nurse and worked at a hospital in Rochester for about 12 years, holding several nurse supervisor positions.
'You are going to leave the convent'
In 1962, when she was 39 years old, her convent was asked to help staff a new mission in Bogota. Gallagher and four others volunteered to go.
In Colombia, she helped start a school for kids 10-12 years old, and she taught English by having students learn the words to songs such as "Oh Susanna."
In 1964 she became director of nursing at Hospital de San Ignacio Javeriana University in Bogota, a title she kept until she left Colombia.
Her scare with the militants came one day when she and a few other nuns were driving down a mountain road and crashed into a chain that had been stretched across the road by guerillas, apparently intending to kidnap, harm or kill whoever they caught. Probably stunned to see a carload of nuns in full head-to-toe habits, the guerrillas allowed the women to leave.
In 1971, after nine years in Bogota, Gallagher returned to the United States and worked in a drug rehabilitation center in New York City.
In July 1973, she ended her 30-year career as Sister Maeve and quit the convent.
"One day, God put the thought in my mind, 'you are going to leave the convent,' " she said.
She also wanted to stay in New York City, and if she had remained a nun, she could have been summoned to go somewhere else. She fell in love with the city and has a painting of Central Park in her small apartment that still stirs happy memories.
Other than a bus ticket provided by the convent, "nobody offered me any help," she said. "They were mad that I left."
Unexpected love
In 1975, Gallagher started working as a night supervisor, and then head nurse at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York. That same year, when she was 52 years old, she married a man who had also left the religious life after many years as a parish priest.
They met at a baseball game, and they found themselves drawn to one another.
She and her husband did a lot of volunteer work together, including making weekly trips to a jail for two years to teach inmates to read.
Around that time Gallagher quit her nursing job and started selling real estate in Florida.
On her boss's advice, she had bought a house in Ormond Beach and rented it out. In 1984, she and her husband moved there.
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Her husband died suddenly in 2005, ending their 30 years together.
Back on her own again, she started another chapter. She has made friends, and she's a member of Prince of Peace Catholic Church in Ormond Beach.
She still feels that her time as a nun had run its course by the 1970s, and she doesn't regret leaving the consecrated life. She has remained a devout Catholic through all the twists and turns in her life.
"It's as important as anything," she said.
Gallagher and Cashman family members contributed to this report
You can reach Eileen at Eileen.Zaffiro@news-jrnl.com
This article originally appeared on The Daytona Beach News-Journal: 100-year-old former nun celebrates birthday in Volusia County Monday
