Sister Nancy Hansen 

It’s often said, “It takes a village to raise a child.” This certainly is an accurate description of Nancy’s childhood. She was born in Chicago during the Depression and lived in a small apartment with her parents, her maternal grandmother, and her sister Mary Jane, who was four years older.

When Nancy was three years old, her father, a Danish immigrant, died suddenly. In order to stabilize the family financially, her mother took a position at Western Union. Nancy and Mary Jane moved with their grandmother to Escanaba, Michigan, where they lived with relatives for two years. Nancy attended kindergarten and first grade in Escanaba, then moved back to Chicago, where she attended four different Catholic schools before graduating from eighth grade. At one school, Nancy was taught by the Dominican sisters and Nancy proclaimed: “I am going to be a Dominican sister!”

However, after only a semester at Alvernia High School, she was inspired by her teachers there and chose to enter the School Sisters of St. Francis Aspirancy. Nancy completed her high school in Milwaukee, and upon graduation, she began the steps to sisterhood, progressing from Postulant to Novitiate and finally Profession.

During this time, Sister Nancy earned a Bachelor of Science degree from Alverno College. Her first assignment was to teach first grade, and it took less than a semester for her to know that primary education was not the right fit for her. In the years that followed, she taught science, math, and religion at several high schools, including Pius XI in Milwaukee, Ryan High School in Omaha, and St. Joseph Academy in Kenosha, Wisconsin, among others.

While she was teaching, Sister Nancy felt an inner call to be a nurse. So she returned to Alverno College and earned a Bachelor of Science degree in nursing. She began her nursing career at the Guadalupe Clinic on Greenfield Avenue in Milwaukee. There, her Spanish language skills grew and her desire to serve the Latin communities would last 40 years.

With her Spanish language skills and cultural experiences, Sister Nancy ministered as a nurse in Honduras, Nicaragua, Peru, and throughout the United States. In Texas, she worked for the Texas Department of Health and was asked to manage a clinic for women and children in Presidio, on the border. The nearest doctor was more than 60 miles away, so Sister Nancy was asked to earn a certification as a pediatric nurse practitioner, which she accomplished. In recognition of her service and skills, she was named Rural Nurse of the Year in Texas.

After 11 years in Presidio, Nancy responded to the call to join other School Sisters of St. Francis in El Paso, to work with our congregation’s Mission on the Border. She was also hired to work with the El Paso Diocesan Office of Peace and Justice, where her focus was jail ministry.

When Nancy was called by the community to serve as a health advocate for the sisters living at Maria Linden in Milwaukee, it was not an easy decision to leave El Paso. But Nancy always trusted that each call to move came from the Spirit, and she responded with open hands.

Sister Nancy is a deeply spiritual person and she has been a great example to those of us who have lived with her. She loves community life, and she has done much to foster it wherever she has lived.

Congratulations, Sister Nancy, on your 75th Jubilee, and thank you for sharing the Franciscan charism and ministry to all those people you touched in your many years as a nurse.