Many residents of the Center of Family Love in Okarche waited by the window each day for the arrival of a beloved Catholic nun, hoping to be among the first to greet and hug the woman some of them called “Mama.”
The center, which provides lifetime care to individuals with developmental disabilities, has joined many in the Catholic faith community and the community at large in mourning Sister Veronica Higgins, 74, a Carmelite sister who died Jan. 2 in a car accident in Canadian County.
“She was the spiritual guide for all of us and the mother to all her precious children here at Center of Family Love,” Debbie Espinosa, president and chief executive officer of the Center of Family Love, said in a statement.
Sister Veronica Higgins says a prayer before the Mass for the Dedication of a Church and Altar at the Blessed Stanley Rother Shrine in 2023.
“Our residents called her ‘mama,’ an endearing name that she cherished. It melted her heart to know they saw her as their mother at Center of Family Love.”
According to the Oklahoma Highway Patrol, Higgins was driving a car west on State Highway 3 around 3:20 p.m. Jan. 2, about 4 miles south of Okarche, when her vehicle left the road, hit a tree and came to a stop in a creek.
The Most Rev. Paul S. Coakley, archbishop of the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City, announced Higgins’ death on several social media platforms.
“Please pray for the repose of the soul of Sister Veronica, the Carmelite Sisters of St. Therese, and all who grieve her passing,” he said. “Eternal rest grant unto her O Lord.”
In a 2016 story featured in The Oklahoman, Higgins talked about her life and faith journey as she prepared to celebrate the 40th anniversary of her vows. She said she came to Oklahoma from Tennessee in 1976 to become a Carmelite Sister with the Carmelite of St. Therese of the Infant Jesus religious order based in Oklahoma City. She told The Oklahoman she converted to Catholicism from Methodism and she was the only Black Carmelite sister when she arrived to join the religious order in 1976 because another Black woman at the religious order did not end up taking her vows.
Higgins was working as a case manager at the Center of Family Love at the time of her death, and many Oklahoma City metro area community members also knew her as one of the teachers, and for about nine years, the principal at Villa Teresa, a beloved private Catholic school that was located in Midtown before it was closed by the Archdiocese of Oklahoma City in 2012, after more than 80 years in the community.
Those who knew her well said Higgins was known for her love of music, her guitar, her bubbly personality and her devotion to Christ and the Catholic Church. Sister Barbara Joseph Foley, mother superior of the Carmelite Sisters of St. Therese of the Infant Jesus, and Nolan Reilly, director of music at Our Lady’s Cathedral, both spoke of her contagious smile.
“No matter where she was or who she was with, she drew energy from others,” Reilly said. “She was happiest in a crowd and she loved making new friends.”
Foley said Higgins’ smile lit up her face and she was “gifted in so many ways.”
“It’s a beautiful life that she gave to everybody,” Foley said.
Foley, 72, said many people knew Higgins at the Center of Family Love, Villa Teresa and other places where she served, but she got to see her away from the public. Foley said Higgins was her postulate director and novice director when she entered the Carmelite Sisters’ convent in the mid-1990s when she was middle aged. She said she was able to see Higgins live out her Christian witness behind the scenes just as faithfully as she did in public.
“I got to see her faithfulness and her prayer life — how she lived her life as a consecrated religious — is probably what a lot of people didn’t see,” Foley said. “She touched my life.”
Reilly said he had known Higgins since he was a child and she encouraged him throughout the years as he became a professional musician.
“Before I moved to the cathedral, she would check in around every major holiday or every major event, to make sure that I was doing OK and taking care of myself,” he said. “I would always say, ‘Oh, Sister, you’re so sweet to think of me,’ and she’d say, ‘Oh, you musicians, you’re my people. I have to check in.'”
Reilly said she loved to sing and she was committed to singing in the choir at Our Lady’s, where she served as a longtime choir member.
“She never missed anything, really — if it was bad weather or medical events — no matter what, it was impossible to keep her away,” Reilly said.
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A ‘tireless’ advocate
Foley said Higgins was always on the go and “If she believed in something, she prayed like a prayer warrior.”
“I would say she was more than 100% in everything she got involved in,” Foley said.
Reilly said that’s how she was when she was advocating for “people on the margins” — like the poor, immigrants and individuals on death row.
“I don’t think anybody should ever confuse that sweetness or her gentle nature with weakness because she was one of the most powerful people I know, and it was a very subtle strength,” he said.
“She was a tireless advocate for people on the margins. She was always writing open letters to defend people on death row or immigrants or the poor, and I really feel like people in the margins were her heart.”
The Rev. Don Heath, chair of the Oklahoma Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, said Higgins was a well-known and vocal critic of the death penalty.
More: Nun known for role as school leader in Oklahoma prepares to celebrate her 40th anniversary of vows
Meanwhile, Center of Family Love leader Espinosa said she knew where Higgins wanted to be at long last.
“If she cannot be with her precious children here at the Center of Family Love, we know there is no place that Sister would rather be than in the arms of Jesus,” Espinosa said.
Vigil Service will be at 6 p.m. Jan. 10, at Our Lady’s Cathedral, 3214 N Lake Drive. Mass of Christian burial is set for 9 a.m. Jan. 11 at Our Lady’s. A reception will be held in Connor Center adjacent to the cathedral, followed by a private burial.
This article originally appeared on Oklahoman: Friends, community respond to death of Sister Veronica Higgins