When Sister Claudia Hayden began her novitiate as an Ursuline Sister of Mount Saint Joseph just under 40 years ago, she had visions of a ministry of teaching young children. In her early years as an Ursuline Sister she also expressed a desire to become a nurse and assist those in need of nursing care.

Sister Claudia is pictured with nephews Joseph, 13, left, and Derrick, 7, and niece Melissa, 16. Joseph is a seventh grader at Burns Middle School, Derrick, a second grader at West Louisville Grade School and Melissa, a sophomore at Owensboro Catholic High School.

       Her first visions materialized briefly, as she taught fourth grade students for five years in Stanley, Kentucky, and Florissant, Missouri. She also earned her nursing degree and has been in some type of nursing ministry, fulltime or part time, for the last 24 years. Sister Claudia no longer holds a teaching position and her nursing ministry is only part time.
         Back when she began her novitiate she never envisioned a third ministry – family ministry – that would prove to be her longest, fulltime ministry, one filled with love and caring for a niece and two nephews.
         Thirteen years ago, family circumstances developed which required Sister Claudia to come to the aid of her elderly mother, who had been caring for an active, three-year-old granddaughter.
         Sister Claudia began caring for her three-year-old niece as her work schedule permitted. When a special needs, newborn nephew entered into the picture, she moved into an apartment in Owensboro and continued to assist her mother as often as possible while continuing to work fulltime in her nursing ministry.
         When a house on the grounds at the Mount became available, Sister Claudia was able to assume full care of the two children.
         After several years, a second nephew – at one-and-a-half years of age – joined his siblings (to their delight) and Sister Claudia – faced with the task of raising three young children – went to a part time status in her nursing ministry and to a fulltime status in her family ministry.

Sister Claudia assists Melissa with her homework at the computer.

        Sister Claudia recalls that a vocation prayer helped her cope with the major challenge she had undertaken. She says, “A vocation prayer I read many years ago concluded with the words, For you, Lord, I will. With you I can! Often when I feel stretched, I first try to determine how I’ll manage the situation, relying on my own resources. When I finally realize my own inadequacy, that prayer returns to mind and God always works things out! 

        “When the Paul Volk Hall nurse position became available, it was certainly an answer to the dilemma of how to be active in Community while my ministry at home increasingly called for more of my time and energy.
         “With this new ministry at the Mount I found the opportunity to be with the sisters five days a week, sharing my nursing skills with them, but being most blessed by their presence in my daily life. Beginning the workday at Mass with all the sisters at the motherhouse most days, then sharing a noon meal with them before finishing the day at the P.V.H. health care office affords the opportunity for community involvement that was so limited previously. The greatest gift of this renewed contact is their reflection of God’s presence to me every day.
         “The entire community has helped our family in innumerable ways and I am forever grateful!”
         Today, Sister Claudia is busy tending to the needs of 16-year-old Melissa, now a junior at Owensboro Catholic High School, 13-year-old Joseph, a seventh grader at Burns Middle School, and seven-and-a-half-year old Derrick, a second grader at West Louisville Elementary School.

Sister Claudia enjoys a quiet moment with her nephews Joseph, left, and Derrick.

        “In addition to taking care of all their physical and emotional needs, I have been trying to instill in their lives the same values and stability that I received from my parents and grandparents,” says Sister Claudia. “The way they lived their faith – being patient and steadfast – had a lifelong effect on me. I have had their example to help me through difficult times. They never abandoned hope and never have I.
         “I want the children to grow up with confidence in themselves, to grow into adulthood equipped to help themselves and other people as well.
         Teenager Melissa says of her aunt, “She’s been my "mother" for 16 years. She has a memory book that she has passed on to me that contains much that has happened to the three of us since we have been part of her life. There is one quote in it that really gets to me. She says I was sitting in her lap as a really small child – about three years old – when I looked up at her and said, ‘Cuia – that’s what I called her then – Cuia, when I get big like you and you get little like me, can I hold you like you hold me?’. When I read that, it makes me cry.”
          Melissa says Sister Claudia is always setting good examples for her and her brothers. She says, “Claudie told me a long time ago that you can spend your life becoming strong or miserable, either way there is just as much effort involved. And I’ve tried to be strong.”

Sister Claudia says longtime friend Sister Jacinta Powers is always challenging and encouraging Melissa, Joseph and Derrick, especially in their classwork, but also in their personal and spiritual development.

         Sister Jacinta, who is godmother for the two boys, has been a big help to Sister Claudia. Says Sister Claudia, “When I was working at the hospital and had to get to work at 5:30 a.m., Sister Jacinta would arrive at the house at 4:45 and help get the children ready to take to my mother’s house. She would come anytime, day or night, to assist with any emergency, big or small.”
         Sister Claudia says because of Sister Jacinta’s teaching background, she has helped the children with their class work, especially in math and science. “She’s always challenging and encouraging the kids, especially in their classwork, and in personal and spiritual development as well.”
         Sister Jacinta is quick to return Sister Claudia’s words of praise. When it comes to Sister Claudia’s ministry with the children, Sister Jacinta says, “The first thing that comes to mind is that I believe Saint Angela is proud to call her ‘daughter.’ Although Claudia may speak at various decibels from the beginning to the end of the day, she ‘speaks with a gentle wisdom’ as she guides the children into the ways of the Divine. They in turn are growing in a home where love abides, and that too is at various decibels. God had a plan almost 40 years ago when she was called to be an Ursuline…a unique plan.”
         A number of other Ursuline sisters have helped in the care of Melissa, Joseph and Derrick. Sister Claudia says they have shown care, concern and availability whenever they can.
         The help she receives from her 80-year-old mother, from Sister Jacinta and other Ursuline sisters enable Sister Claudia to continue working in her part time nursing ministry in Paul Volk Hall while she tends to her fulltime family ministry of raising her niece and two nephews.

Sister Claudia sees to the needs of Sister Mary Patrick McDonagh, left, and Sister Marie Brenda Vowels in Paul Volk Hall.

        Sister Betsy Moyer is health care supervisor at Saint Joseph Villa and works closely with Sister Claudia every day at Paul Volk Hall. Sister Betsy says, “Sister Claudia takes her ministry of health care seriously, and is a devoted caretaker not only of our residents in Paul Volk Hall, but also in the devotion she has for her niece and nephews. When she cares for the residents, all her attention is on them even when a call comes in from school or home, she completes the needs of the person she is attending before she settles the needs of family.”
         Sister Betsy is impressed with the way Sister Claudia manages to juggle her two ministries successfully. “Even though she cannot be available as much as she would like to be at times, she gives quality care to those she touches,” says Sister Betsy. “She does an amazing job juggling what is needed for family, friends, and community. She is selfless, always thinking of the needs of others rather than herself.”
         She continues, “Claudia is a very gentle and sensitive person who makes every effort to go the extra mile to give quality care within community and at home. I often wonder how she makes all things happen for the good of all.” 
         Sister Claudia was born on a farm near Beech Grove in McLean County, Kentucky, to Joseph Dennis and Mary Frances Hayden. Her father was a farmer who also worked for a number of years as a kiln fireman at Owensboro Sewer Pipe Company. She has two sisters – older sister Janet is a teacher in South Carolina, younger sister Maria lives in Henderson, Kentucky. Younger brother Gary is a retired telephone company employee living in Corpus Christi, Texas.

Sister Lois Lindle, local community life coordinator for the Ursuline Sisters, works closely with Sister Claudia.

         Sister Claudia was given an early introduction to the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph, attending first through fourth grades at Saint Alphonsus Grade School, where the Ursulines taught her.
         When her father sold the farm and moved the family to Sorgho, Sister Claudia began the fifth grade at Saint Mary Magdalene Grade School. “That was the first year that I really enjoyed school,” Sister Claudia recalls. She explains that her earlier school years were difficult because of her shy personality. “But we had Sister Ethelreda Hayden at Sorgho and she gave me a sense of self worth and confidence and I really loved that fifth grade year.”
         The next three years (sixth through eighth grades) were also spent at Saint Mary Magdalene, under the guidance of Sister Clarentia Hutchins. “Sister Clarentia was always a character,” Sister Claudia recalls, “she really made school interesting. She challenged us scholastically. She made school enjoyable and stimulating. And she showed great interest in her students.”
         Sister Clarentia is now a resident of Saint Joseph Villa at the Mount. “And she is still witty with a humorous personality,” says Sister Claudia.    

        It was Sister Clarentia who directed Sister Claudia to come to Mount Saint Joseph for high school. “She advised me and encouraged me to come to the Academy for my high school education and I did,” says Sister Claudia.
         During her four years at the academy, Sister Claudia heard God’s call to serve and following her graduation she began her novitiate and entered Brescia College, studying elementary education.

Health Care Administrator Sister Betsy Moyer goes over a patient's chart with Sister Claudia.

        Four years later, just shy of her degree, Sister Claudia was called to her first teaching ministry, a 2-year assignment teaching fourth graders at Saint Peter of Alcantara parish in Stanley.
         After earning her elementary education degree from Brescia, Sister Claudia’s next assignment took her out of the state, all the way to Florissant, Missouri, near Saint Louis, where she taught fourth graders at Saint Angela Merici Grade School for three years.
         “I really enjoyed teaching, I enjoyed the kids, I enjoyed the families,” Sister Claudia says. “But after three years in Florissant, Sister Annalita (Lancaster, the leadership director at the time) called and asked me to go into nursing.”
         After two and a half years of study at Barnes Hospital School of Nursing in Saint Louis, Sister Claudia became a registered nurse and returned to the Mount infirmary.
         For the next four years she worked in the infirmary in Lourdes Hall. “We did everything,” Sister Claudia recalls. “We cleaned, we were night nurses, aides, unit secretaries, med-techs, we were even pastoral care. I believe when I started we didn’t have a day off. We worked seven days a week.”
        To fill the need of some hospital experience, Sister Claudia spent the next 18 months working as a staff nurse at Lourdes Hospital in Paducah, and then returned to the Mount to serve as co-director of nursing, along with Sister Jacinta Powers, for three years.
         Sister Claudia then spent two and a half years at the University of Louisville earning her bachelor of nursing degree, while working part time in oncology at Norton Hospital.
         She returned home to the Mount for a year and a half, worked for 12 years as a dialysis nurse at Owensboro Mercy Health System, and then returned to the Mount in August of 2005 as staff nurse in Paul Volk Hall, a position she still holds today, working it around the demanding schedule it takes to raise, educate and tend to the many needs of three young children.
         Sister Jacinta recently wrote a short story about Sister Claudia. The story is an excellent illustration of her family ministry:
         Who comes to mind when you ask: who can walk faster than a speeding bullet? Or, who can apparently eat anything without gaining a pound? Or, who is blessed with the ability to catch a nap in two-minute intervals? The answer to all three is the same: Claudia Hayden.
         She may be all those things, but there is a lot more. She recently left a happy 12-year ministry as a dialysis nurse to assume her current work with the sisters in Paul Volk Hall. She will say each day “I just love working with those Sisters and am glad to have the opportunity to become reacquainted with them.” After she leaves PVH (on the run), her hours of dedication continue for the rest of the day.
         She shifts gears to a younger group of folks, her niece Melissa….and nephews Joseph.…and Derrick….. That nightly scene has as many facets as it does bodies. However, one thing I always am impressed with, as I am sure Saint Angela is also, is the nightly prayer ritual. 
         Now I have not witnessed it first hand, but young children make great human “tape recorders”, so I have gotten the picture relayed to me. Now try to envision, two boys tucked into their beds, Claudia and Melissa sitting one on each bed. “Jesus, Mary, and Joseph, I give you.....Hail Mary....Our Father....Glory Be...”
         Now each child shares what happened during day for which they are grateful to God. That usually illicit a few giggles. The day ends with sound sleep in that house, especially in Claudia’s body and soul.

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