Jubilarian 2021 - Sister Helen Alder

Sister Helen Louise Alder was born in Billings, Montana. From 1944 to 1951, she lived in Seattle. In 1953, the family lived on a farm near Richmond, Missouri. For her sophomore year, in 1957, she boarded with a family in Kansas City, Missouri, and attended St. Teresa’s Academy, where she met the Sisters of St. Joseph.

She entered the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet in 1960 and was received into the novitiate in 1961 as Sister Louise Joseph. She received a bachelor’s degree in elementary education from Fontbonne College in 1965.

In the St. Louis area, Sister Helen taught elementary school in Missouri in the 1960s at Ste. Genevieve Grade School in Ste. Genevieve and at St. Thomas the Apostle in Florissant. In 1970, she developed a tumor/nodule on her vocal cord, and after treatment and surgery was told by the doctor that she should get into a profession where she didn’t have to strain her voice. She had always wanted to be a nurse so her superiors helped her look for a nursing school. It was at this time she went back to her baptismal name of Helen.

From 1971 to 1972, she was a nurse aide at St. Joseph Medical Center in Kansas City, Missouri. After receiving her RN in 1974, she returned to St. Joseph Medical Center as a nurse through 1985.

Sister Helen was the founding nurse at the Vredenburgh Health Center in Vredenburgh, Alabama, from 1985 to 1987. She then served as a nurse for one year at Deaconess Hospital Rehabilitation Unit in St. Louis. Then, from 1989 to 1990, she was a nurse on the Navajo Nation at Fort Defiance Indian Hospital in Arizona.

In 1991, she served two years as a nurse in home care for St. Alexius Hospital in St. Louis. After a year-long sabbatical, she served as the director of home health from 1994 to 1995 at St. Elizabeth of Hungary Clinic in Tucson, Arizona.

In 1995, Sister Helen returned to Kansas City. She was nurse at Carondelet Home Care Services in Overland Park, Kansas, until 1999. She was a nurse at Hickman Mills Clinic from 1999 until 2006. During this time, she served as a parish nurse at St. Therese Little Flower Parish (2004-2019). Sister Helen served as a school nurse at St. Monica Grade School (2006-2008) and at Our Lady of the Angels Grade School (2008-2012) as well.

Since 2019, she has served as a volunteer parish nurse for St. Therese Little Flower Parish.