Sr Sylvia Fernandes, FMA, passes away in Mumbai

Sr Sylvia Fernandes, FMA, passed away yesterday after a long fight with cancer. She was just 34 years old or so.

She bore her suffering with great forbearance and even cheerfulness. I guess that's a great example for all of us: it's not how long you live, but how you live, that's really important. Someone might live for 80 years, but be a pain both to him/herself and to others. Someone else might have such a brief life, and yet have lived it in happiness and in spreading joy....

Sr Sylvia did her novitiate at SHTC and so was a member of our parish was two years. Sr Sushma, who is at present on the staff of SHTC, was her novitiate companion.

The funeral is this afternoon at Mumbai. Sisters from the two FMA communities have gone down.

RIP, Sr Sylvia.