Sister Ann Paul (Barbara) Chenard D.C., aged 96, died peacefully on January 30, 2025, at St. Louise House in Albany, New York. She was born and raised in Biddeford, Maine on March 18, 1928, along with her twin sister Beverly, the seventh and eighth of nine children of N. Paul and Anna (Seavey) Chenard.
Sister Ann Paul attended a Catholic grade school and graduated from St. Andre High School in Biddeford in 1946. She knew the Daughters of Charity through her aunt, Sister Blanche Chenard, who resided for many years at the Daughters of Charity hospital in Waterville, Maine. Sister Ann Paul enrolled in the hospital’s nurse training program in 1947. After six months she decided to enter the Daughters in Emmitsburg, Maryland in July 1947.
Sister was prepared as an elementary school teacher and taught in a variety of grades for thirty-six years. She found great joy in preparing special needs children for their First Communion. In 1963, she received her B.A. in Education from St. Joseph College in Emmitsburg, Maryland, and earned her M.Ed. in Education from Niagara University in Niagara, New York in 1982.
Sister Ann Paul served in schools in Hyattsville and Baltimore, Maryland; Greensboro, North Carolina; Bridgeport, Connecticut; and Troy, Utica, Syracuse and in Johnson City, New York (where she was named “Teacher of the Year”), until 1986.
In 1986 she began serving in Pastoral Care at St. Mary’s Hospital in Rochester, New York. She continued pastoral care in St. Catherine Laboure Nursing Home in Buffalo, New York. A colleague in Rochester described her as “our saint,” and worked with patients and families in ICU, CCU, and Emergency Room. “Her gift of sharing prayer with patients brought spiritual solace and peace to many.”
Sister came to St. Louise House in Albany in 2014 where she served in the Ministry of Prayer until her death. Her joy was evident to all. She loved to be with Sisters who were near death to assist them with prayer.
Sister Ann Paul was preceded in death by her parents, by brothers Robert, Lawrence, Richard and Philip; by sisters Frances Callahan, Beverly Mooney, Patricia Pinette and Alicie Casavant. She is survived by her brother-in-law, Donald Pinette (Saco, Maine), by many nieces and nephews, by friends, and her Sisters in Community.