Grace Simpson: "I have learned more from the poor than from any other people."

    The Sister Visitor Center on Louisville’s west side is an emergency assistance program that provides help with the most basic of human needs: food, clothing, assistance with rent, utilities, medicines, furniture, etc.

    The Center was founded in 1969 to help meet the needs of the poor living in three West Louisville neighborhoods. Now an agency of Catholic Charities, Sister Visitor today serves between 700 and 900 households every month.
      Located at the corner of Market and 22nd Streets, Sister Visitor is staffed with five full-time and two part-time employees and a number of caring and dedicated volunteers.
      The Sister Visitor staff includes five Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph  - caseworkers Sisters Grace Simpson, Michele Intravia and Maureen O’Neill, receptionist Sister Margaret Marie Greenwell and secretary Sister Clara Johnson. Sister Grace has ministered at Sister Visitor for 23 years, Sister Margaret Marie and Sister Clara both for 14 years, Sister Michele for one year and Sister Maureen for two months.
       The Sister Visitor “clients” have nothing but kind words for the Center, especially for sisters who give them a helping hand and words of encouragement. “I don’t think I’d be able to make it sometimes without them,” one man said as he looked across the room at the sisters. “They have helped me through a lot of hard times.”

     A young woman said, “They have really helped me. I had just gotten out of the hospital and they were there to help with my medications and clothes. They even helped with my electric and water bills. They are all so nice.”
       All of the comments eventually led back to Sister Grace, the 23-year veteran caseworker. “She is really special,” said one client. “Without her help and encouragement, a lot of people simply would not be here today.”
       Volunteers Mike and Linda Horlander said in unison, “Sister Grace is an absolute angel. She’s dedicated, and she has the patience of Job. Doing volunteer work here, we’ve had to learn to have lots of patience and we’ve learned to do that from her. She’s also taught us to look at life in the Christian way.”
       Volunteer Jim Volpert says Sister Grace is quite talented on the telephone. “She can do more on a telephone than anyone I’ve ever seen,” he says. “She knows everyone at the water department and at the gas and electric company. She knows them all by their first names, and she knows how to get people the help they need to get their utilities turned back on. When she retires, she is going to be hard to replace!”
       “Sister Grace has been with us for over 23 years and does a wonderful job,” says Sister Rebecca Miles, SCN, director of Sister Visitor Center. “She does a lot of work with the seniors and the handicapped.”
       Sister Grace was born in Fairfield, Kentucky, in Nelson County, the fourth oldest of Byron and Eleanor Simpson’s 10 children – five boys and five girls.
       She attended Saint Michael’s Grade School in Fairfield for eight years where she was taught by Ursuline Sisters from Mount Saint Joseph and then attended high school at Mount Saint Joseph Academy.

     Sister Grace’s first recollection of a religious calling dates back to the fourth grade when she thought she’d like to be like the fourth grade teacher she admired.
       The first serious calling came during her senior year of high school. “I was sitting in study hall, looked up and saw Sister Joseph Theresa, our principal, praying her office,” she recalls. “I thought, ‘Oh, I want to be like her!’ Well that was it.”
       Looking back at her family life, she recalls, “My mother gave me my faith, gave me my structure. My father gave me my freedom, my love of nature. He was a farmer.”
       She entered the community in the fall of 1956 and took her final vows in 1963.
       Her teaching ministry began in 1959, teaching seventh grade at Saint Columba Grade School in Louisville. After four years at Saint Columba, she moved on to Saint Ignatius in Louisville where she taught seventh and eight graders for five years before becoming principal at Saint Catherine’s in New Haven for eight years, the last two years teaching seventh and eighth graders in addition to her duties as principal.
       In 1976, Sister Grace returned to Saint Columba as principal, a position she held until 1982 when she resigned and moved to Mount Saint Joseph.

     She had various responsibilities her first year at the Mount before being named the first secretary of Mount Saint Joseph Conference and Retreat Center under director Sister Mary Matthias Ward.
       After one year in that position, Sister Grace returned to Louisville to “work with the poor.” That was in September, 1984. She became a caseworker at the Sister Visitor Center on Louisville’s west side. She recently began her 23rd year in that same position. “It’s the people who keep me here,” she says. “The people who are so needy. I have learned more from the poor than from any other people.”
       When asked what changes she has seen at the center in the last 23 years, she said, “Needs changed, but the basic needs have not. People still need food, clothes, supplies, financial assistance with utilities, mortgages, and rent, and medicines. That hasn’t changed. There’s still the people that are needing because there are still poor people.”
       Has Sister Visitor’s ability to provide help changed? Sister Grace says it has. “In the last several years, we have had to cut back on financial assistance,” she explains. “One reason being Hurricane Katrina. People gave there, and our donations dropped. We lost two full-time caseworkers due to financial cutbacks.”

     Sister Grace has noticed some positive changes. “People are much more aware of finishing their high school education and then continuing on,” she says. “The parents today want their children to go to college.  Not all of them, but some of them. When I first started working here, the parents in those days were happy if their children finished high school. So in the 23 years I’ve been here, I’ve seen the gradual realization that the goals are higher and they want more for their children.”
       Any retirement plans in Sister Grace’s immediate future? “I have no plans to retire,” she quickly answers. “I will work at Sister Visitor because it’s what gets me up in the morning – that’s how important it is to me. I will work here until my health dictates otherwise.”
       She continues, “There is nothing like working with the poor to learn perseverance, grit, kindness, faith and hope. They are some wonderful people. In my years here – for the most part – people are just people. They are just like us in ways except for the low education, low opportunities and low financial areas. Some are thrifty, some are not. Some cheat, some don’t. Some will try to con you, some won’t. It’s true at any level you work with. So I find working here to be very life-meaning to me, very.”
       Any regrets? “No, just thanksgivings, no regrets,” she says.
       One of Sister Grace’s favorite quotes is taped to the top of her computer monitor. From Proverbs 14:31, it reads: Kindness shown to the poor is an act of worship.
       She says, “That’s my philosophy!”
       Sister Visitor receptionist Sister Margaret Marie Greenwell has worked with Sister Grace for 14 years. She says of her co-worker and Ursuline sister, “Sister Grace’s compassionate spirit and heart for the poor is a beautiful inspiration to all. She is truly Angela in Action.”