A Sister at St. Thomas Church in Zanesville Saying Farewell

After 60 years of serving people and the church Sister Maureen Mahon is retiring. The thing that stuck with her the most over her lifetime of devotion to the church is the people.

"The people are the church, and they are the ones who I feel very close to," Sister Mahon said. "The wonderful people in our church. I just can’t praise our people enough."

And Sunday the people came out to thank her. People filled the St. Thomas gym on North 5th Street this afternoon to thank her for her time. Sister Mahon spent 29 years as a missionary in Papa New Guinea before coming to Zanesville 14 years ago.

"I’m just so blessed," she said. "So privileged to be able to come into this wonderful community here in Zanesville. it’s just been wonderful, but the people are the ones who make it."

Father Peter Fegan of St. Thomas Church says that she will be very greatly missed. And Sister Mahon added that she will miss the church, and it’s people very much.

"That’s one of the hardest things for me to do, is to bid farewell to these beautiful people here, and I’ve made so many friends," Mahon said. "That’s going to be hard."

She says that it was a difficult decision to join the church, but that she would never have wanted to do anything else.