Part-time chaplain dedicates her life to the Lord

social and spiritual care to the people, she said.

teacher, who went to The University of Notre Dame.

Roberta Spencer has a passion to care for others as a social worker and pastoral counselor, both locally and internationally. She has been to India, Uganda and Virginia.

She worked at the Hospice of St. Joseph County from 1982 to 2010.

Spencer grew up on the south side of Chicago. A cradle Catholic, she lived in a convent for 24 years. She moved to Indiana 40 years ago and choose to leave the convent.

“I felt I needed to be more involved with the community,” said Spencer.

She got a job as a chaplain for the Center for Hospice.

“They hired me full time,” said Spencer. “So, I was still in religious life.”

Spencer said through the Center for Hospice, she has met people of a variety of faiths.

“So you respect their life and morals,” she explained. “I’ve learned a lot about other religions.”

She has made 16 visits to Uganda to further a partnership between hospices to establish the Road to Hope, an education support program for children without caregivers.

“I felt attracted to that program,” she said of The Palliative Care Association of Uganda.

The program helps bring palliative care to the people of Uganda. It helps bring holistic,

“I even met with spiritual leaders,” she said. “The people of Uganda are very spiritual. It’s joyful. The churches are usually packed. They really rely on their spirituality. They have a strong faith.”

Spencer said the visits to Uganda have deepened her spiritually.

She has also travelled to work at Mother Teresa’s Home for the Dying in Calcutta, India, having been there four times. The South Bend resident has worked with terminal patients there, spending two to three weeks at a time.

Spencer has also made annual visits to Appalachia to repair and rebuild homes in impoverished areas in Virginia.

“I did roofing, flooring, painting and anything that needed to be done,” she said. “There’s a lot of people from different denominations there that I met.”

Every Wednesday, she said, a small parish would do a potluck supper.

“They really renewed my faith, and I helped them and they helped me,” she said.

Spencer volunteers at St. Vincent de Paul Society, South Bend, and she is a volunteer with the Sisters of the Holy Cross and Unity Gardens.

Spencer, 81, is a part-time chaplain at St. Joe Regional Medical Center. She has been doing so for 40 years.

She is married to husband, Tom, a retired special education

“He’s been very supportive,” she said. “He even went to Uganda with me once and also Virginia.”

Spencer said her faith and God has helped her a lot.

“I feel blessed, and I feel fortunate,” Spencer said.