Sr. S.S.Ch. Jeannette Gonthier

Sr Jeannette Gonthier was born in Amesbury, MA on Good Friday, April 2, 1926, the sixth child of Fred and Alma (Sevigny) Gonthier. Mr. Gonthier had an Iron and Brass foundry where Jeannette did secretarial work as a teen. He was a selectman in town for many years. The Gonthier family was well known and were parishioners of Sacred Heart Church. The children attended the parish school with the Sisters of St. Chretienne.
Already in the second grade, Jeannette sensed that she was called to become a Sister. She attended the high school Juniorate program at St. Chretienne Academy in Salem, MA and entered the Sisters' novitiate in Giffard, Quebec. She made her first profession as a Sister of Saint Chretienne on August 15, 1945.
Sister Jeannette taught for 33 years in parish elementary schools in Maine, and RI, and in high school at the Academy in Salem. She was the Principal at the Academy for three years before it closed in 1971. Then in Lewiston, ME, she taught geometry at St. Dominic High School (St. Dom's) where she experienced intercommunity living with Sisters of different congregations.
After leaving teaching, Sister Jeannette felt a desire for chaplaincy ministry. She studied at the State Hospital in Tewksbury. She became a pastoral associate at St. Mary's Parish in Marlboro where she visited the elderly, the sick and the dying, a ministry she dearly loved. She trained a group of people there to do home visits, the LOVE ministry.
Sr. Jeannette served her Sisters in leadership as the Assistant Provincial and Secretary in the '90's where she resided in Wrentham, MA. There she continued her parish ministry at St. Mary's Church. In 1999, she was sent to Tampa, FL to do chaplaincy work at Rocky Creek Village, a community of elderly, retired residents. During that time, at St. Paul's Church, she participated in the Bible Study program which she continued to coordinate upon her return to Marlboro in 2008.
During her whole life, Sr. Jeannette was a woman of prayer, deeply steeped in Scripture, and intimate with her Beloved Lord. She was close to her sister, Sr. Rachel, who was also a teacher in the congregation. They loved their extended family and had many good times at their family's summer home in Laconia, NH.
In recent years, Jeannette joined her Sisters living at Alliance Health at Marie Esther here in Marlboro. In the long-term care unit, the nursing staff devoted themselves to care for her, and her Sisters were tireless in their attentions. On January 10th, her wish for God to 'come and get her', was accomplished as she died peacefully. She leaves us with the witness of her life of selfless dedication to God's people and intense love for her congregation.
Among Jeannette's siblings, now deceased, were Armand (Denys), an Assumptionist priest, Yvonne (Mahoney), Robert, Sr. Veronica Rolande, OP, Bernadette (Motsis), and Sr. Rachel, SSCh.
A funeral Mass will be celebrated on Monday, January 20, 2025, at 10:30AM at the Sisters' residence at 720 Boston Post Road East in Marlborough, MA 01752. Visitation will be held from 9:15 – 10:15AM. Burial will be held on Tuesday, January 21, 2025, at 11:00 AM at St. Joseph's Cemetery, RR110, Amesbury, MA 01913.
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