A Lasting Impression

summertime REUNION RECONNECTS SISTER WITH
COLLEGE STUDENTS SHE MENTORED some 50 YEARS AGO

Sister Pat Marie Buranosky tends to look years younger than the 91 candles atop her most recent birthday cake would suggest. But on one particular afternoon this summer, she was absolutely glowing, as anyone might be after taking a ride in a time machine, transported 50 years into the past.

She’d just returned home to Mt. Assisi Place in Pittsburgh, Pa., after she and three friends she hadn’t seen since the late 1970s filled a nearby eatery with joyous laughter and colorful tales from their time together at Indiana University of Pennsylvania (IUP).

Back then, Sister Pat Marie was known by her religion name, Sister Mark (she returned to her baptismal name in the 1980s). In serving alongside late Sister Suzanne Cherney as a campus minister in IUP’s Neuman Center during the 1970s, she likely did not realize then the impact that her spiritual guidance had on young co-eds Sue Pesch Wolfe, Linda Benigni Barnes and Debbie Saldutte Meyer.

But on this day … over lunch … they told her.

“She was the guiding light who helped me through the transition from a small-town life to campus life,” Linda recalls. “She was the role model of faith that I needed to guide me through my college years.”

Now retired after 38 years with Brookville Area School District, Linda remains connected to her college classmates, including Debbie, who set the whole thing in motion, although by bittersweet means.

When Sister Pat’s brother, Bernie Buranosky, died earlier this summer, Debbie saw his obituary. The distinctive family name and the mention of surviving sibling “Sister Pat” immediately rang a bell. Because she knew her former mentor only as Sister Mark, Debbie decided to roll the dice, so to speak, and connect a few dots. She passed a note to Sister through a neighbor who works at the attending funeral home, and the rest is history.

“A few days later, I had a voicemail from Sister Pat and knew immediately she was the friend we called Sister Mark,” Debbie says.

Debbie reached out to Sue and Linda and, soon, an impromptu reunion was on the calendar. They fetched Sister from Mt. Assisi Place on a beautiful summer day and took her on an uplifting trip down Memory Lane.

“From the moment we all got situated in the car for the ride to lunch, it was as if we hadn’t missed a beat,” Debbie says. “Sister is as spunky as ever, and her spiritual reflections are as meaningful to me now as they were 50 years ago.”

“Who would ever think that an obituary notice would stir up very happy memories spanning 50 years?” Sister Pat Marie joyfully ponders.

Debbie’s volunteer work with Goodwill of Southwestern Pennsylvania and with a church-based ESL class for migrants is living proof that Sister’s lessons about social justice issues still resonate. Sue, too, followed in Sister’s footsteps by teaching in Catholic schools. She eventually transitioned into the insurance industry and, in retirement, volunteers with South Hills Interfaith Movement.

“Because of Sister Mark, I felt so at home at Newman Center during my college years,” Sue says. “I remember her popping into our dorm rooms and just talking and laughing, encouraging us to be involved in our faith and social justice issues.”

The “girls” aren’t girls anymore. They are wives and grandmothers who, after building lives of their own, now appreciate more than even the blessings of their younger years. “I felt that same comradery at lunch that I felt 50 years ago in our college days,” Sue says.

After recapturing that same old undeniable magic in June and getting together again in October, the group plans to keep in touch. They shouldn’t expect any arguments from Sister Pat. “After a sadness came a great joy,” she says. “That’s what Debbie’s note did for us.”

“I’m so thankful that our paths have again come together,” Debbie says. “What a beautiful day we had. I’m still smiling about our time together.”