Nuns retire in Spuyten Duyvil home

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Sister Anne Mary Regan has done it all.

During her time with the New York Sisters of Charity, she has held positions including nurse, teacher, assistant administrator, switchboard operator and volunteer in a Port Chester methadone clinic

“I’m very interested in people. And at this point, I’m occupied with just living every day,” Sister Regan, 103, offered as an explanation for her longevity.

“I’ve also been a dancer since I was a youngster in Connecticut,” she said, giving a kick of her left leg from a lavender chair in her new room at Schervier Nursing Care Center, located at 2975 Independence Ave.

Sister Regan, who was born Genevieve Regan in Bridgeport, Connecticut, is one of 14 nuns whose move to Schervier was facilitated by younger Sisters of Charity at the end of March. The nuns previously lived at the Convent of Mary the Queen in Yonkers, which is scheduled to close later this year.

Sister Regan said she is still adapting to the change.

“I can still go to mass every day in the chapel,” which is convenient, she said. “But it’s a transition [from the Convent of Mary the Queen]. You’re more dependent on staff here. You have to blend your personality with theirs and understand them, so they can understand you.”

It’s an approach that may explain how Sister Regan has been able to navigate the decades of change between her and a childhood in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

As a youth, she danced “a mean Charleston.” But a childhood spent with five brothers also made her tough, she said. To get along with them better, she followed their interest in baseball. Her father, the chief of detectives in Bridgeport’s police department, would often drive her with them down to Yankee Stadium to watch Babe Ruth and other sluggers take the plate for the home team.

Anne Mary Regan, New York Sisters Charity, Connecticut, Schervier Nursing Care Center, Bridgeport, Convent of Mary the Queen, Yonkers, Yankee Stadium, St. Vincent's Hospital, Greenwich Village, World War II, Manhattan, Harrison, New York, Margaret Sweeney. College of Mt. Saint Vincent, Helen McTaggart, J.D., St. John's University, School of Law, Bahamas, Bronx Family Court, Helen Jarcynski,
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