Sister Ann Joachim Wolcenski, OSF

1929-2022

Sister M. Ann Joachim Wolcenski died at Rosary Care Center in Sylvania, Ohio on July 9, 2022.  The daughter of Joseph and Josephine Wolcenski came to the convent in Sylvania in 1944 from St. Philip Parish in Minneapolis, Minnesota to become a Sister of St. Francis.  She professed her first vows in 1948 and her final vows in 1951.

Sister Ann Joachim would have celebrated 75 years in religious life next year and for 68 of those years taught in the primary grades in schools in Michigan, Ohio and Louisiana.  Forty-one of those 68 years were spent in New Orleans where her sister, Sister Ramona (1930-2017) also a Sylvania Franciscan, joined her in the teaching ministry where they both thoroughly enjoyed teaching reading and had a reputation of being able to teach anyone to read.

In a Poverello article written about them in May, 1993 by Sister Karen Zielinski, she noted that Ramona and Ann Joachim also try to build students’ self-esteem.  And they just plain love them.  She also noted that they were known for their boundless energy and creativity in teaching.  This was also evident after Hurricane Katrina in 2005 when they both returned to their beloved New Orleans and Holy Ghost School and entered into the difficult and long rebuilding process of their home and school with that same energy and creativity.  They both retired to the Motherhouse in Sylvania in 2015 and were often seen volunteering at Rosary Care Center as well as taking many long walks around the beautiful campus looking for the deer which seemed to elude them.

To know Sister Ann Joachim (familiarly known as Jo) was to know a woman of great dedication to her vowed life in community and her wonderful spontaneous sense of humor especially when she and her sister were together.

If you wanted to laugh from the beginning to the end of a party you invited them and they would entertain you just by their banter with each other.  Many of the Sisters will be sharing the fun and funny things they said and did as we mourn the loss and celebrate the life of Sister Jo.  She will be dearly missed by her Sisters in Community, along with her nephew Jim Maciasek (Jean), grandniece Amy Omann (Nate), and grandnephews Brian Maciasek, Troy and Tom Scarbrough (Brooke); other nephews and nieces, classmate Sister Geraldine Paluszak, good friend, Sister Carol Hoffman and friends in Minnesota and Louisiana.

Visitation for Sister Ann Joachim will begin at 1 p.m. on Friday, July 15, 2022, at Our Lady Queen of Peace Chapel, where the funeral Mass will immediately follow at 4 p.m.  Livestreaming of the Mass can be found at  https://video.ibm.com/channel/RvdadQRjbGk

Memorial contributions may be made to the Sisters of St. Francis, Sylvania, Ohio.

Written by Sister Mary Thill