Sister Ruth Anne's official title was therapeutic respite provider for handicapped children at the Benda/Bridges Homecare Solutions, and Moore Center. Her title, however, did not tell the story of her many years as a teacher, consultant, and coordinator for children with physical and mental handicaps. A Sister of Charity for 46 years, Sister Ruth Anne was taught by the Sisters of Charity at the Academy of the Assumption in Wellesley, MA, and although many of her fellow students boarded at the school and were from privileged backgrounds, Sister Ruth Anne felt lucky to be able to attend the school on scholarship.

Upon graduating from Mount St. Vincent University, Sister Ruth Anne's first ministry was teaching first graders in Lawrence, where she continued for the next eight years. She had up to 56 students at a time, and of those students, some were slow learners who needed to repeat the year. Her supervisor, having noticed Sister Ruth Anne's special interest in the slower learners, asked her if she would be interested in teaching them exclusively, and she readily agreed. And so, while still teaching full-time, she pursued graduate studies in special education at Boston College.

After teaching in Lawrence and Wellesley, Sister Ruth Anne went on to become a learning disabilities educator and consultant at various places, including Acton and Manchester, Conn. She subsequently spent three years as a child development specialist at the May Institute for Autistic Children, a residential facility in Chatham, where she worked with autistic children between the ages of six and 12. Sister Ruth Anne then moved to Raymond, N.H., and worked with handicapped preschoolers in the public school system for several years. Next came a position with the Easter Seals, where she helped multi-handicapped, school-age children transition into public schools.

Completing her work at the Easter Seals, Sister Ruth Anne was asked to work with several severely handicapped students at the Brock Home. There, she worked with four students ranging in age from three to 20 years old. The students, said Sister Ruth Anne, were functioning at about the level of a three-month old: Two were blind, one had little movement, and one had no movement. Besides trying to meet their physical requirements and teaching such basic tasks as sitting and eating, Sister Ruth Anne strove to "give them a happy, joyful environment; one in which they were capable of interacting." What was fulfilling, she says, was "the glimmer you got from the smiles on their faces." Looking back, Sister Ruth Anne described the year as the "happiest and healthiest" for them.

From there, Sister Ruth Anne became an inclusion specialist at the elementary school in Pittsfield, N.H., where she worked with blind, multi-handicapped and severely autistic children, all of whom required one-on-one paraprofessionals.

As long as she is healthy, Sister Ruth Anne is committed to continuing in her ministry, where her rewards are the "smiles of the kids, when they are able to make eye contact with you. There is nothing like it; it is as if you are looking into God." In today's super-rushed, electronic world of cell phones and iPads, of instantaneous gratification and materialism, there are so many lessons to be learned from Sister Ruth Anne: humility, unconditional love, and self-sacrifice; caring for -- and learning from -- those who need it the most yet are the least able to show their appreciation; finding joy in the simplest of gifts from God. This quote from the Old Testament selected by Sister Ruth Anne, says it all: "God asks of you only this: To act justly, to love tenderly, and to walk humbly with your God." (Micah 6)