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Sister Gilberte Desilets
By Linda Lemmon
Town Crier Editor
PUTNAM --- It seems fitting that two members of the Daughters of the Holy Spirit celebrating 100 years on this Earth Feb. 18 taught "the little ones."
Sister Angela, born Maria Lucia Caldarone in Waterbury on Feb. 18, 1912, was the daughter of Italian immigrants. She entered the Daughters of the Holy Spirit community in Putnam and made her profession on Aug. 8, 1935, at the DHS Motherhouse in St. Brieuc, France. Most of her career was spent teaching little ones. She retired to the Provincial House on Church Street in 1991 and has been a patient at the Holy Spirit Health Care Center there since 1996.
She became a nun after getting to know the sisters of Mt. Carmel in Waterbury. They taught her CCD classes. Of her own career teaching little ones, she said "I can't forget them because they were so good." She said the parents were happy, too. Asked what she'd like her former students and families to know, she said "Tell them all I pray for them and I love them."
Sister Gilberte Desilets said she also prays for her former little ones ,every single day. She was born Feb. 22, 1912, in Canada, one of 14 kids. As a child she said she played marbles, jumped rope, played ball and her favorite, hide and seek. She remembers getting up early in the mornings to go pick blueberries and strawberries. "We walked everywhere. A car was not common," she said. When she was 16 her family moved to Leominster, Mass..
Sister Gilberte said she "always thought about being a nun" even when she was a child --- "from the very beginning."
"God called me. God was helping me," she said. "I'm thankful to Him because I've always been happy." After making her religious profession Aug. 25, 1931, in St. Brieuc, France, she returned to the U.S. and was assigned as a teacher at St. Mary School in Jewett City. She also taught in Fitchburg and Chicopee, Mass, and in Fairfield.
She said she "loved teaching. I enjoyed and loved the students." She also served as a dietician and as a tutor. She retired in 1985 but in 1990 returned again to St. Mary School in Jewett City, serving as a part-time tutor. In 2001 she retired to the Provincial House in Putnam. "Jewett City was my home. I was there 54 years," she said.
With her rosy round cheeks and round wire glasses, she jokes that she'd like to go back to teaching. She's known for her sewing talent and also polishes the crosses and doves the nuns wear. And she'll go from watching Wheel of Fortune to TV Masses, one after the other. Spunky for 100, she's got quite a sense of humor and likes word play.
Both nuns will celebrate their birthdays at a joint 100th birthday party Feb. 18. If you'd like to send a card, it can be addressed to Sister Angela or Sister Gilberte Desilets at the Daughters of the Holy Spirit, 72 Church St., Putnam, CT 06260.