Originally published at Southern Cross
By Denis Grasska
Sister Joy Bourgeois is a 96-year-old widowed mother and grandmother. She enjoyed an exciting career in law enforcement before joining the Missionaries of Charity contemplative branch.
Born in San Francisco and raised on Long Island, she entered religious life in 1986. She made her first profession of vows on Dec. 12, 1989, in the Bronx, New York, and professed final vows on May 31, 1997, in Silver Springs, Maryland.
Question: You have led a colorful life, experiencing both the vocations of marriage and religious life. What has been the through line?
Answer: My motto, in looking back over a very full life, is all about service: I served my family as a wife, mother and grandmother. I served my country as one of the first female law enforcement officers in its history, and now I serve God with full-time duty as one of Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity.
You grew up in a very different world. What are some of your childhood memories?
I grew up on Long Island, New York, at the tail end of the Depression.
During World War II, families were put on rations. The war got serious for us kids when all the young men in the
