Kelly, Theresa

Born in New York City; deaf at age 2 1/2 from spinal meningitis. Attended St. Joseph's School for the Deaf; also had 4 years of high school and 6 months of college before going to work as an office clerk with Commonwealth magazine. The devastation of a boyfriend's death from a serious illness turned her to religion, and, since American convents were not accepting deaf candidates at that time, she entered the convent of Little Sisters of Our Lady of Seven Dolors in Montreal, QC. Taught at that convent's schools for the deaf 4 years, then at the Mackay School for the Deaf for the next 30 years. Uncomfortable with the changes that had come to the Catholic sisterhood, she elected not to renew her vows sometime during the 1980s. She became a member of the lay community instead, continuing to minister to the deaf through the House of Faith and the Association of Clerc of St. Viator at Laval, QC.