SR. CHARLOTTE MARY CLOSE, R.A.

LANSDALE – Sr. Charlotte Mary Close of the Blessed Sacrament, R.A. went home to God on Sunday, April 26, 2020 at Lansdale-Abington Hospital after contracting covid-19.  She was in the 87^thyear of her life and in the 67^thyear of her vowed life as a Religious of the Assumption.  Born in Philadelphia on the 4^thof July, 1932 to Constance Schell Close and L. Paul Close, Sr. Charlotte was the original Yankee Doodle Dandy of both her Close family and her Assumption family, taking tremendous delight in the fireworks, barbecues and parades that marked her birthday each year.  “It’s nice they do that for me,” she would say.  Was she jesting or in earnest?  She never told.  

Sr. Charlotte entered the Religious of the Assumption at the age of 19, and made her first, or temporary, vows of poverty, chastity and obedience on July 28, 1953, in the same chapel of Ravenhill Academy where she had been baptized and confirmed.   Four years later, on September 24, 1957, Sr. Charlotte pronounced her final, perpetual, vows at Ravenhill.  At that time, she took the words of Jesus — “Fiat Voluntas Tua” / “Thy Will be Done”— as her“word,” that is, a word by which she hoped to live her life as an Assumption Sister. 

After her vows, she studied at Villanova while teaching Mathematics at Ravenhill.  Later, while teaching at the Assumption Academy in Miami, she took the opportunity of earning an M.A. in American Studies and Art at the University of Miami. Following Miami, she lived for many years at the then-Provincial House in Lower Merion, where she regularly boarded the #44 bus to head down into Philadelphia to serve as the treasurer of Genesis II, a Montessori school in Powelton Village founded by two other Assumption Sisters and concerned parents of the neighborhood.  For the last 20 years, she was a member of the Assumption community of West Philadelphia, where she made many friends by her cheerful presence. For many of those years, she served as the local treasurer of the community, and was responsible for handling questions of health insurance for the entire province. She played the organ in the convent chapel for the Liturgy of the Hours, gladly added her lovely soprano voice to the singing, and also became part of the local knitting and crocheting group.  Working alongside other women from the neighborhood, Charlotte made innumerable socks and caps for babies, maintaining a lively line of conversation as she did so. 

Late in her life, Sr. Charlotte took on the job of maintaining the copy center at West Catholic High School, and was much appreciated in that position.  She came to love “West,” often referring to it as “my school.” Throughout her life, she had a keen appreciation of sports; in addition to rooting for West Catholic, she was deeply loyal to the Phillies and the “Iggles,” as well as to St. Joe’s and Villanova basketball. She was overjoyed by the Eagles’ win over the Patriots in Super Bowl LII, and never missed an opportunity to rub it in to the Sisters of the community of Worcester, Massachusetts. 

In her last years at home in the community of West Philadelphia, she was also a member of LIFE, a nationally recognized Program of All-inclusive Care for the Elderly (PACE) providing comprehensive medical, health, recreational and social services designed specifically for each person in an effort to promote independence at home. She enjoyed being picked up by the SEPTA CCT-Connect bus and spending the day at the LIFE center at 45^thand Chestnut, where she could look out on her dear West Catholic while munching on one of the “excellent tuna sandwiches” that she got for lunch. Eventually, however, she was no longer able to stay at home in the community, and so moved to St. Mary’s Manor in Lansdale, PA, almost next door to the Assumption community of sisters in Lansdale. There she found her way even as her memory and strength began to fail her.

The Sisters want to thank each member of the St. Mary’s Manor staff for all their kindness to and care of Sr. Charlotte over the last few years. We would also like to thank the kind and heroic men and women of the Emergency Department at Lansdale-Abington Hospital. At a moment when, at the risk to their own lives, they are treating so many very ill people, they showed real care for our Sister Charlotte and for us in the last hours of her life. We are praying for them all. Sr. Charlotte is survived by her religious family and by an older brother, Bill Close, as well as by the families of her other siblings who predeceased her. A private Mass of the Resurrection will be celebrated at St. Stanislaus Church, Lansdale, PA. Later, we hope to have a Mass and a gathering to celebrate Charlotte’s large, generous, faithful life where all of us can be together and remember her with love, gratitude, and quite a few funny stories. Donations in her memory may be made to the Religious of the Assumption: www.assumptionsisters.org/donate