Meet Sr. Joan Ford

"We are unable to be our own 'god.' We gather up our distress and head straight for the Holy One's embrace." Sr. Joan Mia Ford paraphrases Thomas Merton as she delights in telling of her life’s journey, sometimes difficult, from September 29, 1930, until her present life and creative ministry in Mohun Hall. Her "treasure" books of her meaningful poetry, her own prayers, her thoughts, her diary jottings line her bookcase, as do her photographs of loving family and friends. With genuinely trusting appeal, she invites all who visit to become part of her story.

It is a powerful story, different and sometimes beautifully sad, telling, not only the passage of a four year old’s entry to  foster home care (a necessity in the early 1930s for much of her childhood life), but also of the eventual, loving care given and the discovery of God and the Scriptures. In Sr. Joan's mother's Swedish heritage, there was no religious faith, but Protestant Sunday classes with one of the host families introduced her to God: "I learned about you in a child’s way and it gave me hope."

That hope continued as her education path moved to Catholic schools where she yearned for conversion as she found a loving and personal God. Finding the influence of the Dominican Sisters' lives and friendships so strong, she entered the Congregation, what was, then, St. Mary of the Springs, now, Dominican Sisters of Peace, after her college years at the College of St. Mary of the Springs, now Ohio Dominican University: "I was refreshed, happy. I had become God's child."

Easily experiencing great refreshment in her subsequent teaching, and loving her students, Sr. Joan became an itinerant Dominican, serving in several states and in Puerto Rico before coming in later years to Mohun Hall. Her many friends and tributes of those teaching days attest to her expertise and empathy with all. For all who know her, empathy with all, also includes her love and appeal for cats, dogs, creatures wild and tame, of all God's Kingdom, not only in her poetry, but also in her living.

Her sensitive soul, her kindness, her gratitude for all are evident now as she understands that her "child’s way" of knowing God  has matured to her heartfelt prayer of now: "Please prepare for me a place that I may be with you trusting your sacred love to fill me totally. Gentle Shepherd, Amen."