Former Teacher, 98, and Student Find Joy in Reuniting at Nazareth Home

One morning, Lindsay Brent, an LPN Nurse Manager, gathered with coworkers on the nursing team to discuss the newest residents who had come to Nazareth Home’s Clifton Campus. She heard the name “Frebet” and thought to herself how familiar a name. There was once a Frebet in her young life when she attended Montessori school, but what were the odds she’d see this person again so many years later? As it turns out, Lindsay was incredibly surprised to learn that Marie-Therese “Myriam” Frebet, her teacher for first and second grade, was now living at Nazareth Home. Lindsay would have the opportunity to return the love and care she once received from Myriam as her student (then as Lindsay Gaw) at Hayfield Montessori School in the early 1990s.

As the two of them reminisced together over old school yearbooks, Myriam turned to Lindsay and said with a smile, “You certainly were a wonderful first grader.”

Myriam was born in Normandy, France, in 1925 and always knew she had a love of children. She affectionately recalls that first graders were her absolute favorite. In 1954, she came to the U.S. and started a preschool in Louisiana, then went on to work in D.C. and Toronto. All this was before coming to Louisville in 1970 to help her sister with a sick child. She then began teaching at Hayfield Montessori School, founded by her sister Monique Denoncourt and her husband in 1967, and enjoyed a more than 30-year career there.

“I taught reading, writing, and other subjects, but if I was teaching pottery, I was very happy,” said Myriam. She took pottery classes at UofL later in life as a hobby.

As Lindsay looked at the school yearbooks, she especially remembered taking her pictures in front of the schoolhouse and doing pottery in Myriam’s class using a kiln. Lindsay made a beautiful vase for her mother that was sparkly brown in color and had a flower stamped on it.

As their time together was coming to an end that particular day, Myriam fondly looked at Lindsay and said, “You’re still so sweet and wonderful, just as you were as a child.”

Nazareth Home creates living space for senior priests

Source: The Record
By: Ruby Thomas

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Nazareth Home, which provides long-term care to priests and religious in the Archdiocese of Louisville, is now offering independent living accommodations for senior priests.

A renovated building on Nazareth Home’s Clifton Campus houses 12 suites, and two are now home to Father Gerald Bell and Father Roy Stiles. Two other senior priests will be moving in during the first part of next year.

Father Stiles and Father Bell, who serves as the vicar for retired priests, said they’re pleased with the move.

“We’re delighted to be here. The transition has been rather easy. We like the centrality of this area,” said Father Bell. “We’re very pleased with all the services and offerings they have.”

Before moving into the independent living suites in early September, Father Bell lived in St. Luke Church’s rectory in the Okolona area, which he said felt far from everything. The Clifton campus is quiet but close to the hospital district downtown and Frankfort Avenue, with a selection of nearby restaurants, he noted.

The independent living suites were created, he said, because half of the priests in the archdiocese are senior priests. Senior priests are those who have retired as pastors and administrators of parishes but are still ministering and serving where they’re needed.

Each suite on the Clifton campus has a small living area, a bedroom and a private bath.

The building also has a kitchenette, laundry area and a parlor. The preparation of meals, laundry and housekeeping are included in the cost of the suites.

Father Bell said the suites are a good choice for senior priests who no longer wish to live in a rectory or a private home.

He envisions the building, located at 2120 Payne St., becoming a “gathering place for priests,” he said. One of the suites will be used as a guest area, where priests visiting from out of town may stay.

“It’s exciting,” said Father Bell. “The next big challenge is to name it.”

The building that houses the suites had been vacant for a few years prior to its renovation for senior priests. The archdiocese, through funds from the Catholic Services Appeal, and Nazareth Home together paid to renovate it, said Father Bell.

Mary Haynes, who serves as Nazareth Home’s president and CEO, said the home was excited to enter into this relationship with the archdiocese.

“We desire to have the priests here,” she said, noting, “They really enrich our ministry.”

Their presence “is life-giving and affirming to the staff, residents and their families,” Haynes said.

She noted that the Nazareth Home campus also enables the priests to continue their ministry — some priest-residents preside at Masses that are offered in the chapel six days a week.

The space on the Clifton campus works well for those priests who still want to live independently, but in a “congregate setting,” she said.

“It really is a great location. The neighborhood is walkable, it’s on the bus line, there’s a place of worship on the corner (St. Frances of Rome Church) and they can walk to many of the restaurants on Frankfort Avenue,” she added.

Father Bell said Father Nicholas Rice first presented the idea in 2019. Archbishop Emeritus Joseph E. Kurtz, archbishop at the time, “loved” the idea, Father Bell said. Archbishop Shelton J. Fabre does too, he noted.

To learn more about Nazareth Home, visit https://www.nazhome.org.