수잔 모란 수녀님(Sister Susan Moran)

 토론토에서 아웃 오브 더 콜드(Out of the Cold) 프로그램을 처음으로 시작한 수잔 모란 수녀님께서 지난 18일 78세의 일기로 세상을 떠나셨다. 추운 겨울 갈 곳이 없어 거리를 배회하는 노숙자들을 위하여 따뜻한 식사와 잠자리를 제공해주는 프로그램을 시작하신 분이셨다. 자신의 삶 가운데 대부분 시간을 어려운 분들을 돕는 데 쓰셨다. 수녀님은 거리의 노숙자로부터 영국 여왕까지 누구도 다르게 보지 않았고 동일하고 존귀한 인격체로 보셨다. 본 한인교회가 수잔 수녀님이 시작한 프로그램에 동참하여 돕기 시작한 지도 제법 오래되었다. 어쩌면 교회가 하는 가장 귀한 일 중 하나이리라.

  2016~2017 아웃 오브 더 콜드 프로그램을 시작한 후 5주째가 지나간다. 매주 화요일이면 여러 손님들이 오셔서 저녁 식사를 하시고 주무신 후 돌아가신다. 개인적으로도 이 일에 동참하여 섬길 수 있음이 기쁨이요 축복이다. 오늘 아침엔 남자 화장실 청소를 맡아서 하였다. 손걸레로 변기와 세면대를 일일이 닦아내고 대걸레로 바닥을 닦아내었다. 청소를 시작하기 전에는 암모니아 냄새가 제법 났었다. 바닥을 깨끗이 닦아내는 등 청소를 마무리하자 거짓말처럼 암모니아 냄새가 사라져버렸다. 화장실 청소를 하면서 즐겁고 기뻤다고 하면 사람들이 믿어줄까?  행복은 가진 것이 많으냐 적으냐로 결정되는 것이 아니라 크든 작든 가진 것으로 누리고 나눌 때 경험되어지는 것임이 분명하다. 

(2016년 12월 21일)

This winter, like she did every winter for most of her adult life, Sister Susan Moran would certainly have been spending her days and nights making sure people were out of the cold.

She was driven, she explained in one of the many stories chronicling her remarkably selfless life, by a singular mission to create a welcome, loving and warm place for those who struggled to do it for themselves.

“I knew my mission, my calling was here with the homeless,” Moran told the Star, in 2007. “We have to take better care of our vulnerable. There has to be better affordable housing.”

This winter, three decades after she co-founded Out of the Cold — a program where faith-based organizations including churches, synagogues and mosques open their doors and offer a safe place to warm up and sleep — the people who shared her mission will have to carry on without her.

Moran died Sunday at the residence of Our Lady’s Missionaries, the place she had called her home since 1963. She was speaking to her brother on the phone and died instantly, a family member said.

Sister Susan Moran was 78.

Her niece, Mary Jo Eustace, remembered a smart, feisty, determined woman of enormous faith, who could connect with everybody she met, never passed judgment and was known for her love of giving flowers and writing long and loving messages in cards, often with gold and silver sharpie markers.

“She is, and was, a force of nature,” Eustace told the Star. “She was all about love and acceptance for everybody. From a homeless person on the street to the Queen of England, she treated everybody the same.”

Her work and tireless dedication was recognized. Moran was invested with the Order of Canada in 2006 and was inducted into the Order of St. Michael in 2001, through St. Michael’s College School (high school).

Moran joined the school as a special education consultant and helped with the chaplaincy program, starting in 1987. That year a homeless man Moran and the students took food and clothing to was beaten to death. His death prompted Moran, along with co-founders Basilian priest Rev. John Murphy and Anglican priest Rev. John Erb, and the students, to create a soup kitchen in an old storefront, on St. Clair Ave. W.

Three decades later, the Out of the Cold program provides shelter for thousands of people across the province. Last year, 16 Toronto organizations supported by Dixon Hall Neighbourhood Services — which doesn’t track all Toronto programs — provided warmth, safety and food to more than 1,240 people. Dixon Hall staff said there are also programs in York Region, St. Catharines, Hamilton, Woodstock and Barrie, to name a few, as well as outside ontario and in the U.S.

Mayor John Tory, in a statement sent to the Star, described Out of the Cold as the best example of how communities can organize to help the most vulnerable among them.

“Sister Susan Moran was at the very heart of developing that model and making it work,” he said. “She has left the city a lasting legacy that is deeply appreciated.”

The longest running overnight program runs out of St. Patrick’s Church, on McCaul St., and started a few years after the creation of Out of the Cold.

Father Santo Arrigo said Moran would always come to community events and was known for grabbing the microphone to encourage the crowd.

“She would say, ‘don’t forget, look after each other,’” Arrigo said.

“Where her influence has been is to show people they can do something to really make a difference in the lives of people who call the streets their home.”

Moran was raised in Toronto and studied at Loretto Abbey Catholic Secondary School, then attended teacher’s college in Toronto and taught for a couple of years, before joining the abbey in 1963.

Sister Frances Brady, congregational leader at Our Lady’s, met Moran when she joined the abbey and described her as “full of life and enthusiasm,” and having a gift for “talking and being with other people.”

The onset of the cold weather, Brady said, was always of great concern to Moran and when she wasn’t out on the street, she was infamous for marshalling support through the phone.

“She really kept in touch with so many people around the city,” Brady said.

Dennis Bruce met Moran when he and his wife started an Out of the Cold program at the Blythwood Road Baptist Church in 1995. Moran came the first night to help get people settled. She also brought Bruce and his wife a bound copy of Martin Luther King Jr.’s speech, I’ve Been to the Mountaintop, inscribed with “Dear sisters and brothers, God bless your love and courage. Love Sister Susan. Out of the Cold.”

Last Saturday, the Blythwood program fed 130 people and 76 spent the night, Bruce said.

“Her vision to start this has literally saved hundreds of lives on our streets. I will say that unequivocally,” he said.

He also spoke of the ever-growing list of names of the people who have died because of homelessness, posted at the Church of the Holy Trinity.

“I recognize some of those names,” Bruce said. “I think that board would be at least twice the size if it wasn’t for Sister Susan.”

Cathy Crowe, a street nurse and advocate for the homeless, described Moran as a personal hero, a deeply loving and positive woman who taught her the value of persistence and pushing for political accountability.

“She knew people and believed in the basics. Warm people up, shelter them and give them love,” Crowe said.

She said Moran told her many times that she never wanted the Out of the Cold program to last. She wanted the government to act, so people would have places to stay, to have shelter, to have homes, Crowe said.

Crowe remarked that it was strange and notable that her death came at a time when so many Torontonians, at all levels, are backing the fight to make sure everybody in the city has warm and safe places to sleep.

“I feel like it is all being channelled from her... It sure feels like she is doing something,” Crowe said.

In addition to her many friends and colleagues, Moran leaves her brother Dan and sister Maureen, six nieces and nephews and 12 grand-nieces and nephews.

A mass of Christian burial will be held at Scarboro Missions chapel, on Kingston Rd., on Thursday at 10:30 a.m.