Earlier on we showed you an 88 year old elder who was spared, but tonight, Belize has lost a giant - 80- year old Sister Caritas Lawrence died of heart complications last night at around 7:30 at the Belize HealthCare partners. She'd spent 61 years as a Sister of Mercy.
She was a career educator who had dedicated her life to the hearts and minds of the nation's youth.
And that's because she was more than just a teacher, or principal - she was the Sister of Mercy - who turned mercy into a verb, a moving thing, that put compassion into everything she did.
She touched thousands of lives all over the country - and for many young girls like me at SCA - helped us make sense of the world and our place in it.
And while much has been said about all she accomplished her students will tell you that her real power was in her ability to see people, to really see people, and to help them to see the best in themselves:
A Giant in Education, that's the title given almost universally to Sister Caritas Lawrence, a woman who was in her own words "Fully Alive." and dedicated not just to the service of God, but to the service of the nation's children and to the education that she believed was so vital to their development.
Indeed, Sr. Caritas championed education in all corners of Belize from the prestigious corridors of St. Catherine's to the remote wilds of San Antonio. She shared that story with the Catholic diocese back in
And that's who Sr. Caritas was, a champion of the poor and an educator who believed that the only way out for the downtrodden was through higher learning. Her friend Brenda Armstrong told us how she went about ensuring broader access even at St. Catherine's
Brenda Armstrong - Former Colleague and Friend
"Saint Catherine Academy in her time had a special number of spaces in that school for students who left St. Mary's Primary school, Baptist Primary School, Salvation Army Primary school because those children she felt were entitled to an education at S.C.A."
And as many who worked alongside or learned from her too Sr. Caritas was unabashedly a feminist.
Brenda Armstrong
"She was dedicated to opening up the science department of St. Catherine's Academy. Girls can take physics, girls excel in chemistry, and Biology and all the sciences, we always had Bio and Chem but not physics. It was almost like a man's world."
And it's that progressive mindset and drive for inclusivity that allowed the Sister to touch the lives of so many students. Many of whom remember her extremely fondly:
Jamuna Vasquez - Former Student
"As leader and Principal of S.C.A she changed the direction of we saw nuns or religious people in leadership. She was flexible but also firm, she was true to her ideals and beliefs but also had that ability to be open minded, loving, kind and really understand the needs of her students and the people she served."
Tracy Taegar Panton - Former Student
"She really rallied behind us as women, she was always very helpful, never judgemental, I think that's what I remembered most about her, even when there were times when we would fall far from the glory, she was never judgemental but she tried to empower us and to give us the tools and the skills and the lessons we needed to learn at that time."
And she served many, including national figures who may never have reached their zenith were it not for the light that Sr. Caritas shone on them, people like Channel 7's very own Indira Craig.
Indira Craig - Former Student
"I was 16 years old and at the time one of my mount Rushmore's Sandra Coye was ready to get us back in school. We had, all four girls from Wesley College had just been expelled, this was after four weeks of being a political ballgame and Sandra decided, listen we need to get you guys in school and so I ended up at St. Catherine's of course I ended up at St. Catherine's because it was sister Caritas who took a gamble on me. She saw me through some of the most challenging personal times of my teenage life and always made you feel that you were not just special but that you were extraordinarily special."
And it seems Sister Caritas' reach extended even to young unwed mothers, girls who might have fallen through the cracks were it not for her insistence that they resume their education.
Brenda Armstrong
"The sisters of mercy made that move before sister Caritas got there but she became dedicated to the implementation of that policy and it was difficult, it was difficult for any school leader of the time, especially a prestigious school like St. Catherine's Academy to be defending the need of a woman to be fully educated not withstanding the fact that she had become a teenage mother but that was her way of expressing that un-limitedness that I spoke about. Having become a mother should not to her mind cause that girl to no longer be entitled to an education and so through the challenges, whether it was us as teachers accompanying the students to the monthly doctor visits, whether it was as an institution helping to provide for the supplies that the child would need, sister was willing to go that extra mile."
She had her struggles too, and for a long time she endured them quietly but she was courageous and surprised us all when she stood in solidarity with her fellow Cancer survivors to tell all of Belize the story of their courage.
Sister Mary Caritas, a kidney cancer survivor
"I lost my hair at that time; most of it. But I didn't have any courage like Mrs. Barrow to go bald and to walk bald and I still don't have that courage. I do have family that tells me please don't go bald. So I wear a wig, I've been wearing one since 1997. Some of my friends know but it's still not something public. But I will take off the wig and I will let them cut off the rest."
And when she retired Sr. Caritas left only warm feelings in her wake. But, true to form, she wasn't done yet. She then returned to work, this time at the Ministry of education.
Hon. Patrick Faber - Leader of The Opposition
"She was a giant. In our early years in the Ministry under my leadership of course we tried to make those very revolutionary changes in the education act and some of those changes were not well received in the beginning at all especially when we attempted for instance to put in place the teaching services commission and the roman catholic management along with other managements had major concerns about what we were trying to do and of course sister was a part of our team on the ministry side bucking heads with the management, the large management at the time and still is the roman catholic management and sister was able to help to guide and to lead us, to sit down at the table with cool minds, cool heads, so that we can discuss what is best for our children and those are the things I remember about her. I remember one point she came to my office on a matter that was with my personal life and it was like my mother coming to me to say listen this doesn't look good and this is what you have to do. So, she was many things to many people but to me was a giant of an educator, she was a mother and authority figure for me, she represents to me the best that human beings churn out in this life."
Carol Babb - Former C.E.O, Ministry of Education
"Sister impacted my life because she was warm, she reached out to you, she always had such nice words. Sister was a giant in education and she was never angry, she was never sad, she always smiled, she would even say I'm so happy to see you, she knew to say the right words to you to make you feel good. She was an educator at heart and she wanted to see young people develop to their fullest potential and sister gave her, almost her entire life to education."
Sr. Caritas leaves this life a legend, a woman whose shadow will forever be cast over the history of academics in Belize.
Her Compassion was unrivaled, her passion for educating the young, her life's mission.
In her final years, Sister Caritas was a key negotiator between G.O.B and the Catholic Church in finding a middle ground for education reform.
In 1984 she became principal of St. Catherine Academy for 11 years, handing over this position to the first lay principal of SCA in 1995. She went on to serve as a senior officer in the Ministry of Education, resigning in 2015 at the age of 75 but continuing in her prison ministry and church-related works.
