Sister
Colette Van Heek, 83, Mother of
God Monastery, died Sunday, Jan.
27, 2008, in a care center at
Yankton.Funeral services will be Wednesday at 10:30 a.m in the monastery chapel with the Rev. Richard Ortmeier officiating.
Burial will be in the monastery cemetery.
Visitation will be in the monastery today (Tuesday) from 4:30 to 8 p.m. with a liturgical wake service at 7 p.m.
Sister Colette (Sylvia) Van Heek was born on a small farm near Crofton, Neb. June 17, 1924. She was the second of four children of John Van Heek and Mary Arens. She spent the first two years of school at a rural school and later entered St. Rose parochial school in Crofton. She loved the sisters and at the end of the first day of school she announced that she wanted to be a sister. Her family’s first experience with serious illness came when sister’s younger sister, Mary Ann, was rushed to Sacred Heart Hospital in Yankton with a ruptured appendix. It was at that time that Sister Colette began thinking about becoming a nursing sister. She studied at Crofton Public High School for one year and entered Mount Marty her sophomore year. She began seriously thinking about a religious vocation during her senior year.
She entered the Benedictine order at Yankton in August 1941. She made her monastic profession June 24, 1943. She completed a three year course in nurses training at Sacred Heart Hospital and later she attended the College of St. Teresa in Winona, Minn. Following this education, she began her teaching profession. In 1950, she earned a bachelor of science in nursing education and began teaching in the School of Practical Nursing at Pierre. She became a founding member of Mother of God Monastery in 1961.
Her entire professional career was in the health field. Although she enjoyed teaching in the clinical area, she longed to return to the bedside nursing she loved. Following 20 years of teaching nursing, she returned to nursing service at St. Mary’s Hospital and Maryhouse for an additional 10 years as director of nursing and nursing supervisor. Later, she spent a year as a school nurse at the Indian mission at Stephan. Next, she was asked to take a semester course at St. Mary of the Woods in Terri Haute, Ind., to prepare for working with her elderly sisters. She spent six years caring for her sisters at the monastery infirmary in Watertown and later changed her place of ministry to Tekakwitha Nursing Center in Sisseton. She enjoyed nursing for the elderly there for seven years, but eyesight problems made nursing hazardous for her. She then entered pastoral care ministry at the nursing home in Sisseton.
After breaking her hip, she entered Jenkins Living Center. Later she transferred to St. Joseph Care Center at Sacred Heart Monastery in Yankton where she died.
Survivors include her sisters of Mother of God Monastery; her brother, Gerard (Jake); and her sisters, Hilaria Steffen (Victor) and Mary Ann Zavadil (Lawrence).