- [Announcer] Major funding is provided by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation.

(light music) - Okay, so this is the attic of the old convent, and we think this is where the orphans slept, when we first started this operation of the orphanage.

There's a scrapbook up here, and I think it's right over here.

(gentle music) I don't really know when we had the most, but I know that at one point we had 150.

Maybe.

Today we have 60, which is not terribly, terribly small, but it's small and shrinking.

Our median age is 81 or 82.

So we're an older community, but we have not yet decided that we're completed.

We still live in joyful hope.

(gentle music continues) - The big challenge that we are facing is facilities, it's economics, it's doctors, it's medicine, it's the knowledge and the education to how to treat all older people.

We don't have that, but we survive.

(gentle music continues) - For us, we have a population of older sisters who are above 90, who are above 80 and we're above 70.

- Our sisters, the elderly are getting more weak and they need more attention, more medical attention.

More complications are coming in than we had thought, than we had imagined before.

- [Sr.

Sophie] The elder sisters, they need to be shown that love of Christ by giving them their dignity to the end of life.

(train rumbling) - If you're okay, not for me.

(laughing) - Kenya is a big country.

It is made up of 47 counties, and now we have to travel long distances to meet the needs of the sisters.

♪ And got their well ♪ ♪ It is amazing ♪ ♪ And got their fish ♪ ♪ It's amazing ♪ - The distances we have to cover for care to reach a doctor, in Kenya, even telemedicine has not started (person speaks in foreign language) - [Agnes] The little money we have, we are spending it on issues that might be solved by the current technology that we don't have.

- It's an issue and it's a problem.

If a sister happens to get sick at night, sometimes the roads are not possible.

You get stuck in the mud at night.

A sister who has gotten asthmatic attack, she's old, she's almost breathing her last.

You are struggling on the road.

It's sometimes very impossible.

We had to put sister on the road.

You seeing the normal ambulance taking six to seven hours to reach Nairobi.

It was terrible.

She didn't take long.

Then she passed on.

If we had the money, we could have flown sister very fast and she could be living by now.

But you see, those are some problems that sisters face.

We traveled to Mombasa in Voi.

We visited the Sisters of St.

Joseph of Mombasa, Voi.

Their original home where the elders sisters were, was in Bora.

We found the home in Bora was not user friendly for the elderly sisters.

They had stairs that were not user friendly.

So you found the sisters who could not climb going upstairs, they were to crawl using both hands and their legs to reach up so that they can stay and crawl down.

- When the sisters came down to Voi, yes, the place is warmer for them, it is conducive for them, but still they have challenges.

They do not have clean water for use.

They do not have the rails to use when they are walking around.

They use firewood to warm the water for the sisters.

So it is still very challenging and they need help.

- There are many challenges, as an African sister or a elder.

First of all, the ordinary needs like water, electricity, food sometimes.

You need to eat well, but food is not there.

- Their water is salty, and therefore they need water purifier for this water to be user friendly for them, because even if you look at the taps have rusted because of that water.

The sisters have, they have to boil water.

They look for firewood to boil the water for the sisters to take a shower.

They have two containers, one for evening and one for morning.

- [Sr.

Sophie] In Kenya, the knowledge about dementia is not there.

- Yeah, people understood dementia as she was possessed.

This is witchcraft.

She has carried this witchcraft from home to bring to the convent.

They would be taken for prayers because they thought they were processed, so that they could cast out the demons that were causing all this.

And yet it was dementia.

- [Sr.

Sophie] The sisters who are educated to know about the sicknesses of aging, many sisters would still be alive, because many sisters have died because of lack of knowledge or lack of know how to take care of them.

(people chattering) Now, with the experience of the Sisters of St.

Joseph of Mombasa, they have an orphanage and with this orphanage, the children grow looking at the sisters as their mentors, and the sisters, they really become their mentors, their mothers, and they look at them as these life is good.

They feel good about the life, and they choose to become sisters and priests, which is very encouraging because you find that this life is still meaningful.

(person sings in foreign language) (group sings in foreign language) - [Sr.

Aquinatta] These young sisters need to be brought up in the charism of the congregation.

(group sings in foreign language) - [Sr.

Aquinatta] Once they have been brought up in the charism of the congregation, they will take care of the sisters because if they don't take care of us, the sisters will die and the congregation will die.

- For me, it's just an appreciation of a life of a consecrated woman who left her home and dedicated her whole life in service.

Everybody, whether religious or not religious, they deserve a dignified (indistinct).

(rooster crowing) (group sings in foreign language) - In Zambia, I would call it's a dancing church because when we are praying, we have the drums, we have the singing.

So that is an expression of joy to God.

In all the congregations, Catholic sisters, they don't retire.

For that, we even joke about it.

You find that maybe they were teachers, they were nurses, they were doing a lot of things.

They can be in charge of the garden, the orchard, they can be in charge of the kitchen, they can be in charge of the young ones, even just teaching in their formation houses.

So they have to offer what they can offer at a particular age, until they reach a point where they can't do anything.

- For us in Zambia, we are not very much skilled and knowledgeable on how to care for an elder person.

And in my curriculum, we never covered anything to do with elder care.

So even for sister yesterday, it was not easy for us to help her, even for her to be at the stage where she is.

So we had to learn a lot of things.

First of all, she was in the wheelchair.

Then to get there, we had to put the ramps, and now she's confined to that bed.

It's important to know these are the people who have lived their lives.

They have made the congregations to where they are because of the input.

So they have laid the ground for us, so now it's our turn to care for them.

(light music) - [Frank] The American sisters have been part of America's developing history from the very beginning.

- There are so many religious communities that have come to America and they've started the education system.

They started the healthcare system and as a result of that, we see the systems in place now, hundreds of years later.

- The sisters, their roles can be seen in every part of American history.

They can be seen in the nursing and the Civil War.

They can see in the taming of the West.

They went West and helped found many of the cities of the West and the care and the charity work that was being done.

- And so as the sisters grew in number, they came and a key piece was they responded to the needs as they found them.

- [M. Peter] The Carmelite Sisters for the aged and infirm, we started in 1929 in America.

Our Mother Founder's venerable Mary Angeline Teresa saw a need to care for the elders that were facing difficulties because there was no really place for them to go.

- They were also part of some of the major American institutions like the Mayo Clinic.

You can find a Catholic sister who was working with the doctor who developed the methods that Alcoholic Anonymous use today and has been very, very effective.

Today, one fifth of all the hospital capacity in the United States traces its origins to the work of the Catholic Sisters.

It's an amazing story.

These are heroines, for sure.

(airy music) - The Franciscan are earthy, you might say.

Close to the earth.

And that's the way I grew up.

- We come from the country, from the Heartland.

We have a farm.

Pretty simple folk.

What do you want, ducks?

We were a self-sustaining community, you might say, from the very beginning of raising chickens and pigs and cows.

So with the Earth Literacy Center, really the mission is to help connect, let people with God's gifts that are provided through creation, and to help people, children through adults, to really honor and respect the beauty and gift of creation.

- So when we came here and some of the recreational activities was peach parties and pig parties and chicken parties.

It's now what you ordinarily would think of as a party.

This was working with peaches, getting them ready to be canned.

So it was that earth-to-table.

- We pride ourselves on the fact that we were founded as an American community and that we're very much a part of the history of the United States.

- Our community began right after the Civil War in 1869.

We were founded by a parish priest here from Tiffin, Ohio name of Father Joseph Bihn.

And Father Bihn said, "You know, whenever I see a poor child, I can't help but think of Jesus' words, 'Whatsoever you did for this little child, you did for me.'"

- In the aftermath of the Civil War, there were trains that were transporting children who were left orphans because of their fathers being killed in the war, and mothers not being able to care for them.

Trains that were transporting those children across the United States to hopefully be adopted by other families.

And the trains apparently came through Tiffin at that time.

And Father Bihn, one of his Sunday masses, made a request to his parishioners, "I need help to care for the orphans.

Will somebody be willing to help me?"

- So when Mother Francis heard this announcement, she like immediately offered herself and then she went back and sold her farm and gave everything to Father Bihn.

- [Sara] Our founders were really people of great wisdom and knew how to use the resources of the land.

And because there was clay on the land, they were able to take the clay and form bricks and with the bricks they could build a building.

- And they immediately began to take care of elderly and orphans who didn't have a place to stay.

So that was our original mission and we were called Tiffin Citizens and Orphan Asylum.

(potter's wheel whirring) I think we're hardworking and we tend to work for a very long time until we literally can't do it anymore.

(light organ music) - We have a sister who's in her late 80s who has been a musician all of her life.

So she goes over to the nursing home to play for their church services over there.

And it's something, a way that she can gift the lives of other people who are no longer able to do what they used to do either.

- [Sr.

Carol] We have people who paint, who continued to work with immigrants, who work out on the farm, who volunteer, who go to the home to work.

They do memory things in order to keep sharp.

They have exercise classes.

We just all try to be able for as long as we possibly can, but we have a lot of fun together.

- [Person] Thank you for all your work, Anthony.

You did a lot of work.

- The challenge that we face today with having older sisters, one, we no longer have as many, we have very few sisters who are still having employment.

And so bringing a salary, bringing money into the community has dwindled.

Myself, I worked until I retired last year when I was 87 years old.

Now, people have said to me, "Why did you work so long?"

Because to me, a job was never a job.

It was who I was.

- Many of them are well into their 80s, and this group still wants to work, still wants to carry out the ministries.

It's like you're going along so nicely, then all of a sudden your body starts breaking down and "I can't do anymore."

Well, who's gonna do it?

So it's the, the physical pain is there, it can be addressed.

But emotionally and spiritually, I'm very conflicted because I wanna continue to do the ministry.

I'm hoping to pass it on, but there aren't enough people to pass it on to anymore.

- [Sr.

Carol] This is nothing that we worried about 50 years ago.

We had large classes of young sisters and they were like the workhorses of the community.

And so today we depend a great deal on lay employees, because of our own inability to keep up with all of that stuff, which is an added expense.

And so I think our big challenge today is knowing how we're going to walk into the future and how we're going to manage that.

- Some of the changes began, I mean, into the 1950s and then on through the 60s.

And part of it was society was changing.

You have all sorts of new opportunities opening up for women across the country, changes in the church, just massive social changes going on.

So there's a smaller number of younger women entering the communities in the United States.

But when you get the imbalance and so that you have fewer younger women coming in and numerous older women that are now in need with infirmities or healthcare, everything is kind of thrown out of kilter.

- [Sara] Caring for our sisters in the later years of their lives is so precious to us and so important and yet challenging to have the proper resources to be able to care for them as they need to be cared for and as we want them cared for.

- And so how do you balance it both financially, but even just the community wise and care for one another, support for one another?

(pensive music) - We started to take our building apart because even in by the '80s, we were dwindling in numbers.

We lost a lot of sisters in the '60s.

And then vocation started to lessen, - Well, in a sense, to watch our buildings be tore down, there were so many memories connected with them.

It's where I was trained as a novice.

- So some sisters had lived at the Mother House all their lives.

And when we took down the convent, it was traumatic for them.

And it was hard because it was where we ate.

When we came home, that's where we slept.

So it was like taking down our home.

- It was like keeping vigil at a wake service to stand outside and watch it come down.

- The first day when they hit it with the wrecking ball, you know, it was like awful.

And then each day they would see a little more of it disappear, and a little more of it disappear.

It was very sad.

Luckily our leadership team had the good sense to do rituals along the way.

- Before the building was torn down, we had a day of mourning, and everybody who wanted to could go into that building and write their memories on the wall.

- The messages had to do with their life experience in that particular room.

Like I know one says "I was a novice in this room," or "I ran down these steps and got in trouble."

That was very common as you had teenagers, you know, coming to the convent and having all that youthful energy.

So it was a way of honoring how God was present to each of us no matter what room was we were in or what was happening in our lives at that time.

- We had, as the piece above our main entrance, "God is our refuge and our strength."

And when we took the convent down, we saved that and we put it in our new front entrance.

And I think we sort of live out of that.

God has taken care of us for 156 years.

There's no reason to think that all of a sudden he's gonna stop.

We don't know what that means.

We don't know if it means coming to an end or if it means that we're gonna revive and come to a new beginning.

So we live in hope, most of all.

(person singing indistinctly) - Our Lady of Guadalupe is very, very important to the people here in Mexico.

Since we are children, we hear the story and you know that she wants to be with us, with Mexican people.

And that's a privilege.

- Our Lady Guadalupe, she's everywhere in everything for us.

We just felt embrace of her arms and whatever we go, she's there.

In some way, she's teaching us how to take care of our elderly because the word she said is, "I am here.

I am your mother.

Everything you need, I am here for you."

And she's teaching us to take care of our sisters.

(Sr.

Laura speaking Spanish) (patient screaming) (Sr.

Laura speaking Spanish) (Sr.

Laura continues speaking Spanish) (Sr.

Laura continues speaking Spanish) (Sisters speaking Spanish) - Sister Laura is facing a big problem with the older sisters because they don't have nurses enough and she's struggling with the lack of sisters to do that job.

And she wants to be with all the sisters to take care of them with dignity, with so love, with so care.

I think it's overwhelming for her.

(Sr.

Laura speaking Spanish) (Sr.

Laura speaking Spanish) (Sr.

Laura speaking Spanish) - I think we are called to become a family, a spiritual family.

What comes is the love that you do or give in that opportunity every day in every service that you do for them.

(Sister speaking Spanish) - [Sr.

Arcadia] And love counts.

(choir singing in foreign language) - Puebla is a great city.

There are a lot of churches, the people here in Puebla faith is very profound.

My contemplative congregation is Sisters of the Cross of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.

Contemplative sisters see the world in a different warmth.

And I think we see God everywhere.

Yeah.

In the people, in the art.

I think it's because God is everywhere.

I think cloistered is because we want to be in silent, in solitude and serenity.

We have many stimulus out in the city.

And the cloistered is because we need that space of serenity, of silence.

That's what we need as contemplative.

Here in Puebla, we are a very small community because we are only 15 sisters.

But some of them are very, very old and they need a lot of care.

They are strong women.

So strong because being here in the contemplative life for 40 years or 30 years, it requires a strong character.

It's not for the weak person.

How an example of fidelity, of dignity, of still getting in love with Jesus?

Oh, it's wonderful.

I will describe Sister Marta as a very charming nun, very polite, with a great capacity for relation.

She has three replacements of the, (unitelligble) but she has now, in this moment is the intestine.

Perhaps it's a tumor, perhaps it's something like that.

She didn't complain, but she says that she has a very, very strong pain.

(Sr.

Martha speaking Spanish) - She's 88 and she's a strong woman and she wants to be in the chapel at seven o'clock.

She wants to be with us in the recreation time, in the meals.

She wants to be with us.

She wants stay with the community always.

A strong character that makes her wants to be there.

(Sr.

Martha speaking Spanish) (gentle music) (Sisters singing in Spanish) - [Sr.

Gabriela] We are getting older and we are in need of much medicine that it's very, very expensive and we are in need of taking the sisters to the doctor.

And we don't have the car.

We have to use the public transportation.

The most amount of money that we use is for medicine.

(gentle music) - This morning, we had a bit of opportunity to be out of our own congregations and go and meet another one.

This sisters were living in ruins.

Everything was falling apart.

The problem was not only that, but they didn't have any money to rebuild it or get something new.

They live day by day because they don't have materials, things to sell, but they really need a hand, a hand that will help them.

The sisters got in power and keep praying.

And then the miracle came.

(group reciting in Spanish) - [Sr.

Arcadia] And then the help kept coming and coming.

Another one, another one.

Till they got a beautiful place to enjoy their lives.

(Sisters speaking in Spanish) - [Sr.

Arcadia] What I saw is that each one passed their own job to do in the community.

One have the gift to paint, the youngest one, the other one has the gift to do the vestments.

Another one do the clothes that they wear as nuns in the convent.

The other one is embroidery.

So each one shares their gifts, and bringing that treasure to the community.

But then we met one sister and she has cancer and she's in pain all the time.

But she's joyful.

But the medicine is so expensive.

It's a lot of money.

(Sister speaking in Spanish) - Even in their struggles, I can see how joyful their hearts are, because faith and because they really enjoy consecrated life.

Their lives in the way that they live, they really lived seriously to follow Jesus' steps.

I think joy comes from the peace that they experience to live in God's will and to live in the present moment.

(Sister laughing) - [Sr.

Gabriela] The big challenge that we are facing is an education to how to treat all elder people.

We don't have that.

It's a big problem.

We have to be together to face these problems.

(church bells ringing) - In evaluating the needs of the sisters that are aging, one of the things that was extremely important is the need for the education.

So we knew that not only here in America but throughout the world, people were struggling with this.

So we felt if we taught a course that would at least give them as much as we know today about aging, they can become trained the trainers and go back and train in other countries.

You wanna find out what the loneliness means to them.

- We see how best we can also engage other Sisters from other congregations so that we move together to do the care of the elder in a more professional way, in a good way.

- What has impressed me here is giving me the knowledge to be able to know that when I have an elder person before me, whether in a nursing home, in a hospital, wherever, I should be able to make a good assessment and diagnosis.

- [M. Peter] So one of the things that is very effective is to have the reality of what it feels like to become aged.

And one of the things we do is like, we call it a virtual dementia.

So we have someone have the feeling of what it's like to have dementia by giving them a headset that has noise, we give them goggles that makes them not able to see as well.

Their hands are with gloves where they can't pick up like you would as you get older because of your fingertips, you don't feel everything.

And in doing that, it allows the participants to observe the behaviors of this person.

And the person actually can tell them what that felt like for five or 10 minutes.

- Like I was holding the red, whatever that was, for a long time, 'cause it didn't feel like a paper.

I guess it's a napkin now that I can see.

- Dementia, you cannot avoid it.

It comes whether you like it or not.

But then I have learned that it's actually not true.

There are a lot of things that we can do to prevent dementia and the things we can do as we are still young can help us to avoid the dementia and old age.

So it's something that the knowledge that I've gotten, I can pass it on even to the other sister, so that we remove that misconception about old people.

- And you see these like aha moments.

There's a connection like in a few weeks of, "I have a sister who does such and such.

Now I know what she's experiencing."

Maybe we need to start looking at our diets and our food.

Maybe we're sisters aren't exercising enough.

So all of a sudden you see these connections start taking place, because of the knowledge that they're receiving.

- It's about education.

Even that we will not have enough money for medicine.

- Okay, how you walk.

- [Sr.

Arcadia] But you can try to accept the part that the other is living in her life.

- [M. Peter] We're gonna have you stand, - Let it be in her situation.

You just need to embrace that.

Give love.

Let the other people feel that you care.

That I think is the most valuable medicine in our lives as a Sisters.

(person sings in foreign language) - So today we have the graduation day of 13 sisters that have been undertaking the course in geriatric care and management.

- We learn a lot of things from Avila and so when we came back to Zambia, we had to engage Sisters so that we train them in taking care of the elderly.

- Have we seen putting the grape in my mouth.

- Without the knowledge can be misjudging people, - Especially this disease of dementia, which is, in many congregations, many communities, the symptoms are there, but I don't know how to do it.

A sister will be there, she wants to eat, but she'll just be quiet, she won't eat.

Because of the knowledge that I've gained, I'll be able to approach the sister and the relationship will grow.

The sister won't feel that I'm not part of this community.

- It is so amazing that they have now also started implementing what we were talking about, the ramps, the beds, the food, the walkers, and even the socialization of the sisters that they have gotten that concept and they have now also started educating their own sisters.

Now we are trying to discuss how are we going to care for our sisters now.

We are just trying to modify because it was not meant for that.

- We need still two windows.

- [Sr.

Regina] So we are trying to modify it, so that it is habitable to keep the sisters here.

- This one, this part will be later, not now.

- I think taking this lesson, this education, that is going to benefit a lot of people and it's going to change the lives of people and the way we care for the sisters that come to us.

(group sings in foreign language) - Sisters of Mary, we're known of our joy.

Hardworking sisters.

Loving sisters.

And that one brings our motto.

If you read our medal, it has "to love and to serve."

(group sings in foreign language) - When we go to the communities, to the different congregations, we do evaluation.

And by doing the needs assessment, we are able to see whether these sister needs assistant in any activities of daily living or what the sisters need in their different communities.

- The light that they have is not very good.

The sisters need nutritious food.

The nurses who are there, they are a few.

We need to train more nurses, so that they don't have a burnout.

- [Sr.

Sophie] As we go to different communities, but we encourage them to do some activities, because these activities, they stimulate their brain, they keep them brain active, they make the rosaries, they do beans work whereby they make them mat and this brings them a lot of joy.

And then you do something beautiful like a rosary.

(upbeat music) (group sings in foreign language) - [Sr.

Sophie] Once in a week, they dance, they love it.

They do many things to make them rejuvenate and feel their lively.

(group sings in foreign language) - It's a lovely thing to be at home, to be brought home by songs and they just sing and love to hear, they look at you and they tell you what they want to tell you because they know you have come home and they tell you, "Welcome home.

We are happy to be with you."

(upbeat music) - Looking at our older sisters, they're really at treasure.

We call them walking library because they have a lot of wisdom they share with us.

They have a lot of knowledge, a lot of experiences.

And sitting in their midst, it really gives us a lot of encouragement.

(engine rumbling) (group sings in foreign language) - [Sr.

Sophie] When I think of today, I am very excited and very happy to have seen so many animals walking around, animals from my own country.

(birds chirping) But looking at some of them, they walked alone lonely and they looked like they're lost in the bush.

And this reminds me of aging.

When the sisters age, at times they may look lonely, but I don't wish this to happen to my sisters.

I really wish that they may be accompanied, they may be able to age gracefully.

They may be able to age well together, so that the life they have lived, the experiences they have shared with us may make meaning even at the end of their lives.

(birds chirping) (children chattering) - I believe that the future for the religious life is that we work together, be facing the challenges together.

We have to help each other because it's a big, big challenge we are facing.

We have to to be more open mind to think, okay, I have the facilities.

I agree that you come with me with my facilities or I have the doctor to be more in communication, facing together this challenge.

- In the past year, we launched an initiative of offering this house that the congregation put other sisters and the service of the others in a city called San Luis Potosi in the center of Mexico.

We started gathering some funds, we started putting things ready to improve the equipment of the house.

But after we offer it to congregations, up to this time, nobody has said yes.

(Sr.

Laura speaking Spanish) - My personal opinion, for me, I love it, because I had many opportunity to share with other congregations and sisters because I have been out of the country.

But not many of our sisters have that experience.

They really will miss their communities, because we become family.

(Sr.

Martha speaking Spanish) - It's very difficult, if you have been 40 years with this kind of life- (group reciting in Spanish) - You think that you are going to be out of the things you are used to know, but found other sisters that are willing to go there with other sisters of other congregations, they are willing to try that solution.

I don't know, in the future, I think, it's the solution, but we have to go slowly.

- Yeah, sisters this common spiritually, spiritual way of living and you can get a even a better attention because resources are put all together.

But in this very specific time, it is not working.

At this time.

This time.

Maybe next year it will be, but not today.

(Sisters sings in Spanish) (Sisters speaking in Spanish) (pensive music) - Catholics were shocked by that.

They were shocked that the sisters didn't have a retirement program.

That they weren't paid for the work that they did, but they did that out of love and dedication to the mission of the church and through no fault of their own, they just found themselves in a situation of real need.

When we go fast forward into the '60s, became kind of a crisis, and then in the '70s, it was a real crisis.

- That just happens.

- So CARA is the Center for Applied Research in the Apostolate.

And it was set up to serve the research needs of the church by providing applied research for decision makers.

From our indications, it's probably about 90% of the elderly sisters have some financial challenges.

- I don't wanna be too grim.

One story was a group of sisters who taught in New York and they had lost a member and they had funeral expenses and they could not pay the funeral expenses for this member.

We had sisters who were working in motels as maids to bring money back to their community to help other sisters.

We had sisters on welfare, a lot of sisters on welfare.

So it was tragic when you think of the noble lives that they led and that they were led to these sort of spots of desperation.

(birds chirping) - Because we are an aging community, I think one of our biggest concerns is if something happens to Medicare and Medicaid, the financial burden on us will be enormous.

I think just that concern is probably our biggest concern.

- What it means for me when I say that we, as a community, are coming to completion, means that we will possibly no longer have members who will be living the kind of life that we have lived.

It will mean that we have completed the work that was ours to do.

I'm very confident that that's true.

We have lived our life, we have lived it to the fullest.

- So we live in hope, most of all.

I think the hardest thing for me is when I haven't seen a sister for a while and I see how much she's aged or how much she's become less able to do what she needs to or she's more stooped, that hurts my heart.

So I think that for me is the hardest.

And then when they die... (gentle music) A couple years ago, one of our sisters had cancer and every other week or so, I would drive her to Columbus for her treatment.

But she died now and every time I go to town and I cross that intersection, I still miss her.

Sorry.

I've been here since I was 13, entered the community when I was 17.

So I've spent way more time with my sisters than I have ever spent with my own family.

- When I think of how we are coping with the loss of income into our community, I think we, we find ourselves more and more relying on the generosity and the goodness of other people to continue to help to support us.

One of the greatest enjoyments, perhaps, in my last year, was to find out that we have finalized to leave a large part of our land in a legacy in which we are going to be a home for the homeless.

And that pretty much brings us full circle where we began.

- [Sr.

Sara] So that this land that first was purchased to become home for people who were homeless from the Civil War can continue to be that place of home for people today who are in need of finding a safe place to live.

- [Person] Because that's how Mother Francis began and that's how we will be ending this.

- For me, the greatest blessing in my life has been to be called a Franciscan from Tiffin, Ohio.

We are earthy people, we are American people.

- [M. Peter] Our future is uncertain.

We don't know what the future's gonna hold for us, but that doesn't stop our living today.

- [Person] We're proud of that.

We're proud of the American Sisters who have come and founded hospitals and orphanages and done amazing, amazing work here in this country.

- [Person] I think that their ethos is in all of us.

They infuse the whole society with a sense of goodness and fairness.

And I think it still lives.

They're wonderful, wonderful women.

They're really inspiring to see that real heroes are in our midst and they're still here.

And they'll tell you stories about what they've done.

It'll amaze you.

(gentle uplifting music) (children laughing) - And this is, this is my- (gentle uplifting music) (Sisters cheering) (gentle uplifting music continues) (song) There's a place for you in heaven ♪ ♪ Free will.

♪ ♪ As we walk along the sands of time ♪ ♪ I will hold your hand in mine ♪ ♪ You are not alone ♪ ♪ You are not alone ♪ ♪ I will walk you home ♪ ♪ I will walk you home ♪ ♪ I will walk you home ♪ ♪ I will ♪ ♪ I will walk you home ♪ ♪ Out of the darkness ♪ ♪ Into the light ♪ ♪ If you need help ♪ ♪ For the good fight (song ends) - [Announcer] Major funding was provided by the Conrad N. Hilton Foundation.

(MUSIC)