{"id":240308,"date":"2016-11-11T06:00:01","date_gmt":"2016-11-10T20:00:01","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=240308"},"modified":"2016-11-11T06:00:01","modified_gmt":"2016-11-10T20:00:01","slug":"remembering-sr-mary-louise-balzarini-mmb","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/remembering-sr-mary-louise-balzarini-mmb\/","title":{"rendered":"Remembering Sr. Mary Louise Balzarini, MMB"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id='gallery-1' class='gallery galleryid-240308 gallery-columns-3 gallery-size-thumbnail'><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/remembering-sr-mary-louise-balzarini-mmb\/sister-mary-louise-balzarini-1\/'>sister-mary-louise-balzarini-1<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/remembering-sr-mary-louise-balzarini-mmb\/sister-mary-louise-balzarini-2\/'>sister-mary-louise-balzarini-2<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/remembering-sr-mary-louise-balzarini-mmb\/sister-mary-louise-balzarini-3\/'>sister-mary-louise-balzarini-3<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/remembering-sr-mary-louise-balzarini-mmb\/sister-mary-louise-balzarini-4\/'>sister-mary-louise-balzarini-4<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/remembering-sr-mary-louise-balzarini-mmb\/sister-mary-louise-balzarini-5\/'>sister-mary-louise-balzarini-5<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/remembering-sr-mary-louise-balzarini-mmb\/sister-mary-louise-balzarini-6\/'>sister-mary-louise-balzarini-6<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure><figure class='gallery-item'>\n\t\t\t<div class='gallery-icon '>\n\t\t\t\t<a href='https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/remembering-sr-mary-louise-balzarini-mmb\/sister-mary-louise-balzarini-7\/'>sister-mary-louise-balzarini-7<\/a>\n\t\t\t<\/div><\/figure>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\n<p>Some remember her for her compassionate firmness. Others remember how down to earth she was. And many remember her unmistakable smile, which she always noted were her original teeth, not dentures. Sr. Mary Louise Balzarini of the Mercedarian Missionaries of Berriz was many things to many people, but above all she was an educator who had a positive impact on generations of students at Mount Carmel School, Sister Remedios Early Childhood Development Center, and doctrina classes throughout the island. And while she recently passed away, her legacy remains.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBoy, I was your dad\u2019s teacher, I\u2019m your teacher, and I\u2019m pretty sure I\u2019ll be your children\u2019s teacher one day.\u201d Carlos R. \u201cSonny\u201d Shoda, 1985 AlumKnight, recalled Sr. Mary Louise telling him this when he was in elementary school. \u201cShe knew all her students\u2019 names, their siblings and their parents\u2019 names, where they lived and where their parents worked.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cShe also spoke Chamorro very fluently, and I even recall her speaking Carolinian to a fellow classmate,\u201d Shoda added.<\/p>\n<p>1989 AlumKnight Charlotte Cepeda also remembers how Sr. Mary Louise knew everyone. \u201cShe knew everyone\u2019s family and would remind you of this important piece of information when necessary.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Cepeda, though, admits that she was not sure what to make of her. \u201cIn 1982, my family had just moved back from Oregon. On my first day of school, I see this frightening woman in white who walked down the Mt. Carmel corridor with purpose in each step. I was terrified!\u201d That terror, however, quickly faded. \u201cThen she smiled that piercing smile of hers (the one that reaches her eyes) and I thought to myself, I could love this woman if she gave me the chance. And she did&#8230; And I ended up loving her.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Many former students remember how they too were initially scared of her. However, as they got to know Sr. Mary Louise, they soon realized that behind that firmness was a compassionate love for all her students.<\/p>\n<p>One such former student was 1984 AlumKnight, Jason Tarkong.\u00a0 He got to know Sr. Mary Louise under less flattering circumstances. \u201cI was a frequent visitor to the Principal\u2019s Office, both elementary and in high school.\u201d Those frequent visits, however, were for the wrong reasons. \u201cUnfortunately, I\u2019m sure she will say she remembers me best for all the trouble my brother Kaleb and I always got into.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Looking back, though, Tarkong is glad that she was a firm disciplinarian. \u201cSr. Mary Louise was a powerful woman\u2014in voice, presence, and when she spoke, we listened.\u201d He is also glad that she never gave up on him. \u201cShe always told me I was a smart kid and should be a better example to my younger siblings and use my talents to make a difference in the world instead of goofing off and making trouble.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>1987 AlumKnight Lucie Ada Shubert had a similar story. \u00a0\u201cSr. Mary Louise was without a doubt a disciplinarian, and I was at the other end of those conversations a couple of times, but I did not feel she handed down a disciplinary action so that one would be afraid or terrified.\u201d \u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHer eyes said something different. They displayed encouragement, maybe even a message that said, hey, you are better than that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That faith in her students\u2019 potential is something that many other former students remember, including a current teacher at Mount Carmel School, Connie Kiawol. As she remembers, \u201cIn 1995 I came to Saipan to join the MMB sister with very poor English.\u00a0 The following year I was told that Sister Mary Louise would be my English teacher. I was excited yet worried and nervous. It was like walking barefoot on rocks.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That fear and apprehension, however, soon gave way to hope and joy. \u201cNot long after we began our class I realized that I enjoyed so much not only her class but mostly being around her and listening to her stories.\u201d Kiawol added, \u201cShe loved what she was doing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As Carlos Shoda remembers, Sr. Mary Louise was also full of joy. \u201cShe had an addicting laugh, the kind of laugh that you couldn\u2019t help but laugh along with her\u2014loud and mighty, like her commanding presence, with the biggest of hearts I\u2019ve ever known.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Her joy and love of teaching were deeply rooted in a humble sense of service as part of her ministry. It was a ministry that she nurtured by daily prayer. As Shubert remembers, \u201cOne of my earliest memories of Sr. Mary Louise is leading us from our classroom to church to pray, celebrate and sing.\u201d Shubert especially remembers how Sr. Mary Louise would pray. \u201cShe would rock back and forth on her Birkenstocks in her white habit, especially when she sings the church hymns.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kiawol put it best, \u201cShe was a woman of God.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Devotion to God and service led Sr. Mary Louise to have an indelible impact on hundreds, if not thousands of students, which is evident in what her former students said about her.<\/p>\n<p>For Cepeda, \u201cshe was mother who loved hard and cared deeply. A mother who only wanted the best for her children. A mother who would do anything for her children.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>As Tarkong put it, \u201cGod bless Sr. Mary Louise. She made a difference in my life by seeing the potential in me and giving me the words I needed to hear.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Or as Shubert said, \u201cSi yu\u2019us maase Sr. Mary Louise. It isn\u2019t possible to put into words the importance of the life lessons you shared and how much you meant to me.\u00a0 You will be missed dearly.\u201d (PR)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Some remember her for her compassionate firmness. Others remember how down to earth she was&#8230;.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":28,"featured_media":240309,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[21,14210,1111,14211],"class_list":["post-240308","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-life-and-style","tag-life","tag-mary-louise","tag-mount-carmel-school","tag-sonny-shoda"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240308","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/28"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=240308"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/240308\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/240309"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=240308"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=240308"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=240308"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}