Sister Peg Hynes S.S.J.
She
was born in Philadelphia on June 7, 1933, the second of the five daughters
of Nellie Burke and Tom Hynes, emigrants from Gort, County Galway. She received
her first four sacraments and her grammar school education at St. Columba's
at 24th and Lehigh. Then on to Hallahan High, a star student all the way in
books and basketball, swimming and softball. At 21, she entered the Sisters
of St. Joseph in Chestnut Hill, received degrees from Chestnut Hill College
and Boston College and became a first class teacher and principal in several
Catholic schools.
In 1986, after 30 years in education, she became the director of The Heart of Camden Housing in South Camden, New Jersey and spent the next sixteen years trying to provide home ownership for poor people. Her work in housing and social service made her in the eyes of many the mother of the poor… "the heart" of Camden. She strove, as the poet proclaimed, "to give a life… to a dream, a dream, that was dreamed in the heart and only the heart could hold." It wasn't easy. But she could say…
What if the dream come true?
And if millions unborn shall dwell
In the house that I shaped in my heart,
The noble house of my thought?
Padraig Pearse
She died on the darkest day, December 21, 2002. Now that "noble house" has the light on.
God grant her eternal rest!