Patricia Schoonover, CSJ
August 8, 1938-August 27, 2008
What a varied life! Born in Rapid City, South Dakota, Pat was taken as a young child to tent revival meetings by her grandmother. After high school, she started nurses' training with the Benedictine Sisters in Rapid City, became a Catholic and then entered St. Martin's Monastery, then in Sturgis, South Dakota. Pat left that community after a few years, and went to the island of St. Lucia to work as a nurse. Some years later, she was working at the University of North Dakota where she met Mary Ellen Gearty and other CSJs. She moved in with them to help care for Elizabeth Regnier, CSJ, who was dying of cancer.
The next step in Pat's adventure was entering the St. Paul Province of the Sisters of St. Joseph. Pat made her final vows on June 29, 1980. Her last active nursing role before injuring her back was at Fairview Riverside Hospital where she worked in the Senior Treatment Program.
As she started graduate school at the University of Minnesota in geriatric nursing, Pat felt that she should do something besides go to school so she volunteered one afternoon a week at Incarnation House, a residence for young mothers and their children. There she met Justin Trupe when he was about 14 months old. Ultimately Pat took the unusual step of formally adopting Justin, with the legal help of our leadership team at the time.
Because Justin had a foot condition that mitigated against participating in many sports, Justin and Pat got involved in Circus Juventus where Justin did unicycling, trapeze work, etc. and for eleven years Pat taught unicycling to hundreds of youngsters.
For many years, Pat's community service was handling the health care affairs for the St. Paul Province. Reams and reams of Blue Cross/Blue Shield forms, Medicare forms, hospital bills, etc. flooded her desk and she handled the paper work and the people attached to them with great gentleness and skill.
What started out as severe back pain turned into a diagnosis of leukemia, and she died six days after the diagnosis. May she truly rest in peace!
Survived by son, Justin Trupe, sisters Leslie (Jim) Walls, Janet (Galen) Kroetz, brother, Dan(Mary Jane) Carroll, nephews and the CSJ community.
Mass of Christian burial was held Saturday, August 30 at St. Joseph Provincial House, St. Paul, MN. Burial in Resurrection Cemetery.
