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By Catherine Walsh, Senior Writer
Growing up Catholic in mostly Protestant Scotland, Mary Fanous never imagined that God would become so central to her life. Although she attended a Mercy high school in Glasgow and grew up in a devout family, she later became disenchanted with the church. How could she have anticipated the circuitous path that would bring her back to Catholicism, through two Sisters of Mercy who became her “guardian angels”?
Mary’s life took a dramatic turn after she finished nursing school. Her beloved aunt Helen, who was also a nurse, visited from Canada and invited Mary to live with her in Hamilton, Ontario. Mary soon found herself training as an obstetrics and delivery nurse at a Canadian hospital where she met and fell in love with Ibrahim “Abe” Farid Fanous (d. 2000), an ob-gyn doctor of Egyptian heritage and Presbyterian faith. The couple married in the United Church of Canada on May 14, 1966, and emigrated to the United States that same day.
Mary and Abe raised three children on the Massachusetts South Shore and summered on Cape Cod, where they retired. When Abe was diagnosed with colon cancer in the mid-1990s, Mary longed to reconnect with her Catholic faith. “I badly missed going to Mass and the sacraments,” she says. She called Christ the King Church in Mashpee, Massachusetts, and met with the pastor Monsignor Ronald Tosti, d. 2024, who in turn introduced her to Sister Shirley Agnew, RSM, and Sister Dympna Smith, RSM, d. 2014, parish mainstays who became her friends.
Her husband never warmed to Catholicism, but he was won over by the sisters. “They first came to our home, which is on a waterway, by boat wearing bathing suits and coverups,” Mary recalls laughing. “Abe was flabbergasted that they were nuns, especially when they accepted his offer of a drink!”
Mary was also startled when she met the sisters for the first time.
She marveled that Sister Shirley Agnew had the same name and red hair as her former nursing school mentor Shirley Agnew, a Scottish laywoman who Mary and other students called “Sister Shirley” out of respect. “Imagine my surprise when I met Sister Shirley the [Sister of Mercy] for the first time!”
During his illness and death, Mary leaned on Sisters Shirley and Dympna for support and spiritual direction. “They were my guardian angels,” she says softly. “They were wonderful.”
With the sisters’ encouragement, Mary found solace by ministering to people who are sick and making retreats. Her friendship with Sisters Shirley and Dympna deepened when they traveled with other parishioners along the Burgandy Canal in France and then when the trio journeyed to holy sites in Scotland and Ireland with Mary’s sister Joan. “We had so much fun together,” Mary says smiling.
When Mary’s mom, Mary Gallagher, moved to Cape Cod, Sisters Shirley and Dympna befriended her. The sisters were there for Mary when her mom passed away in 2009, and again when her oldest son Steven died of a seizure disorder in 2011. (Mary also has a daughter Kathy, a son Michael and five grandchildren.) The sisters even befriended Mary’s dog, Buster.
She, in turn, was there for Sister Shirley when Sister Dympna died suddenly of a brain aneurism in 2014. “I was heartbroken when Sister Dympna passed away,” says Mary sadly. For years she had knitted little sweaters and jackets that Sister Dympna gave to her sister, Sister Anastasia Smith, RSM, d. 2017, who helped immigrant moms and children in New Hampshire.
Mary and Sister Shirley stay in touch, although Sister Shirley now lives in Rhode Island and Mary divides her time between Cape Cod and Florida. When she can Mary donates to the Sisters of Mercy, especially when someone close to her passes away. “I like people to get to know the Sisters of Mercy and how special they are,” she says.