Covid-19 claims Franciscan nun on her golden jubilee year

By Jessy Joseph

New Delhi, Sept 3, 2020: A Franciscan Clarist Congregation nun has died of Covid-19 Coronavirus in the 50th year of her religious life.

Sister Annie Flossy died September 1 at New Delhi’s Holy Family Hospital. She was 74.

She was brought to Delhi August 17 with acute pneumonia and breathlessness. She was put on ventilator on August 29, Sister Betty Tresa, assistant provincial of Noida province, told Matters India on September 3.

Sister Flossy was a member of St Mary’s Convent at Najibabad in Uttar Pradesh’s Bijnor district.

Sister Tresa said her senior nun was tested Covid negative on the first day but both her lungs were severely damaged. “The second day’s test showed her Covid positive,” she added.

Sister Flossy spoke to her provincial on August 29, just before she was put on ventilator. She said she was totally submitted to God’s will and there was nothing to frightened. She also wanted to convey the same message to her young sister, a member of the same congregation, working in Tanzania.

She took ill in the first week of June and was admitted in St Mary’s Hospital in Najibabad and was discharged a month later. She fell ill again in mid-August and was shifted to New Delhi’s Holy Family Hospital.

Her body was cremated on September 1 at Delhi’s Nigam Bodh Ghat crematorium following the norms for burying Covid 19 patients. Two priests, three volunteers from Our Lady of Fatima Forane Church Jasola and a team of nuns from the Noida provincial house attended the cremation.

Father Julius Job, the coordinator of the Covid19 volunteer team of the Faridabad Syro-Malabar diocese, led the prayer service at Holy Family Hospital. Father Ginto Tom, public relation officer, led the prayer service at the crematorium. Two priests and three volunteers wearing personal protective dress carried the body to the electric crematorium.

Her ashes were taken to the provincial house and Archbishop Kuriakose Bharanikulangara of Faridabad led the service at Noida Provincial House on September 2.

Her remains were then taken to the convent in Uttar Pradesh’s Ettah and buried there.

“We are deeply saddened by her death and she will always be in our thoughts,” said Sister Tersa.

Sister Flossy’s yearlong golden jubilee celebration was inaugurated on May 20.

A native of Kerala’s Thrissur district, Sister Flossy’s first profession was on May 5, 1971.

A teacher by profession Sister Flossy continued to work for poor children even after her retirement. She was in charge of St Mary’s primary school in Najibabad.

According to the assistant provincial, Sister Flossy was good administrator whose motto was to reach to the least and lost. She chose to work in remote places, Sister Tresa said.

She was one of the first teachers of St Mary’s School at Mandawali, a remote village in Bijnor district. In the initial days, she used to visit students’ homes, made them to shower, got them dressed and brought them to school. Now the school has become an inter college, Sister Tresa said.