Woman longs to live in St. Joseph, near Clemens Library

by Dennis Dalman

editorial@thenewsleaders.com

Sarah Harris, at age 71, ended up in Sartell by accident – and “accident” it certainly was – and now she can’t help but think God must have been doing something she didn’t understand.

Her fondest dream now is to move to St. Joseph because she would like nothing more than to live near the Clemens Library on the campus of the College of St. Benedict.

The accident that brought Harris to Sartell and the St. Cloud area was a shattered left wrist. What happened is that one day, late last year, she left her home in Idaho by bus to move to Vermont. She was in search of a “small, progressive community” in which to live in that state.

On the way through North Dakota, she made a pilgrimage of sorts to visit the grave of Aaron Jensen, a monk who lived and worked at Assumption Abbey in Richardton, N.D. after becoming ordained at St. John’s Abbey, Collegeville. Jensen, who died six years ago, had long been Harris’s “dearest friend and her spiritual director.” Harris had bean named on oblate of Assumption Abbey, an honorary lay member.

“Aaron was a monk at Assumption Abbey for 40 years,” Harris said. “And I always considered him my brother, though not a brother by birth. I met him years ago through church connections.”

After her homage to her dear, departed friend at the abbey, she boarded the bus again and proceeded west to Bismarck. While walking across the parking lot from her motel to a restaurant, she fell down and badly shattered her left wrist – so badly that surgery was required and many weeks of therapy. She thought she could take a bus to Minneapolis, then board an Amtrak train for the trip east to Vermont. However, she quickly discovered the pain became more and more intense during her bus journey, and in St. Cloud she had to stop her trip.

“I was in miserable condition,” she recalled. “It was such an ordeal.”

St. Cloud, fortunately, held many good memories for Harris. It was there in 2006 and 2007 she volunteered to work at the St. Scholastica Convent.

“I made so many friends there, but sadly many of them have since died because they were so old even then, when I first met them,” Harris recalled. “At that time I thought I’d never see St. Cloud again, but then I found myself there, in St. Cloud – again.”

Harris moved at the end of January to an assisted-living apartment in Sartell as she continued therapy for her shattered wrist, which had been repaired with steel pins earlier.

“In Sartell I met many nice people,” she said.

Now, however, she is seeking a place to live in St. Joseph. As a long-time Catholic, she had been very aware of the Sisters of the Order of St. Benedict and the chapel and monastery in St. Joseph. And, to her delight, she was given an honorary library card to Clemens Library by people who knew about her love of reading and her love of studying theology.

“I would so much like to live within walking distance of that library,” she told the St. Joseph Newsleader during an interview. “What I need is even just a furnished room or a small studio apartment maybe. Something small, something affordable for me. I have good references.”

Harris would also be willing to help out with anybody else who might live in a house or apartment. She has had experience providing elder care, such as for her own mother. And she has always loved to be around older people. I’m allergic to cats, though. But dogs are fine. I love dogs, and I’d be willing to take a dog for walks wherever I’d live.”

Harris, who was married and divorced years ago, describes herself as very self-sufficient and independent, dedicated to spirituality as a devout Catholic.

“My most precious possession is my library card,” she said. “To me, a library is like a wonderfully shining star. There’s theology, my prayer life and certain theology books that can only be gotten through libraries. I feel God has been doing something I cannot understand, that He means for me to live near the CSB Library.”

Born in Ashland, Wis. in 1946, Harris earned a degree in government studies from Catholic College in Los Angeles. She has lived in six states and has worked in the areas of human resources, clerical, office duties and in a military hospital, besides her extensive volunteering.

Harris, who is very articulate and eloquent in speech, possesses a quick and playful wit and a kind, no-nonsense attitude.

She described herself this way: “I’m almost 72. And I look it. I have silver hair. I wear glasses. I’m not an attractive woman by any means. I am not an intellectual, but I love to read and I love libraries. I am also very versatile. I’m just glad I didn’t break my head open when I fell in that parking lot.”

Anyone in St. Joseph who might have a place where Harris could live – especially a place near the CSB campus – should call her on her cell phone at 208-841-5648.

“I would like nothing more than to put on my boots, my jacket and walk to that college library,” she said.