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Sister of Charity Teresa Chang dies at 96
DELHI TOWNSHIP, Ohio. Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated for Sister of Charity of Cincinnati Teresa Chang on Feb. 3. Sister Chang was buried in the order’s cemetery at the motherhouse in Cincinnati. Sister Chang died on Jan. 30.
She was born Jan. 21, 1916, in Hupeh, China, and was a convert to Catholicism — joining the Catholic Church in 1930 at age 14. As a young girl she wanted to go into the nursing profession and in 1936, Sister Teresa began working in the training school with the Sisters of Charity of Cincinnati at St. Joseph Hospital in Wuchang, China, a city located 600 miles up the Yangtze River from Shanghai. The hospital, a mission of the Sisters of Charity, cared for the aged, the sick, orphans and also served as a training center for nurses.
In her autobiographical writings, Sister Chang said she appreciated “the love and dedication of the Sisters. I saw their tenderness as they took care of the sick and their love and devotion to the poor. I only knew I wanted to live a life like theirs.” Sister Teresa entered the community in 1940. We also learn from her autobiography the following: “At that time the territory from China’s North East States to Wuchang was occupied by the Japanese. In 1943, during World War II, U.S. women and men religious were taken to a concentration camp in Shanghai, but Chinese-born Sisters were allowed to stay at St. Joseph Hospital to treat war casualties until the end of the war in 1945, when Sisters of Charity were able to return to the hospital.”
When Sister Teresa came to the United States in 1949, she attended the School of Nursing at Good Samaritan Hospital in Cincinnati, Ohio where she obtained her licensed practical nursing degree, all the while performing sewing services for the Sisters of Charity in their Mount St. Joseph Motherhouse.
Beginning in 1952, Sister Teresa worked the 12-hour night shift as a nurse aide at Mother Margaret Hall. In 1956, she was missioned to Good Samaritan Hospital, Dayton, Ohio, to serve as an LPN for the next 23 years. Sister returned to the Motherhouse to serve as an LPN in Mother Margaret Hall from 1980 until 1986. Upon her retirement in 1986, Sister Teresa served in Mother Margaret Hall as a patient companion for the sick and elderly Sisters.
“Teresa loved baseball and especially the Cincinnati Reds. She was very friendly and interested in talking about all sorts of things. She had a sharp memory and was very, very kind,” said friend and fellow Sister Josetta Marie Chu.
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