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Helen O’Keefe
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July 10, 2022Helen O’Keefe must be the busiest retiree around. Having retired from teaching in 2018, she’s keeping herself busy with volunteering for the parish, helping teach English to refugees at the Flemington Community Centre, gardening (the orchids in the photo are from her garden), babysitting her 3-year-old great nephew one day a week, walking, reading (she’s with the Ivanhoe Reading Circle) and enjoying classical music and theatre (she’s a Melbourne Theatre Company subscriber).
Helen moved to West Footscray from Collingwood in late 1998, but didn’t start attending Christ the King (CTK) church until the New Year, after a neighbour knocked on her door and invited her to attend mass there. With encouragement from a parishioner, Lorraine Kennedy, Helen started volunteering for the church back then. More than 20 years later, she is even more active in the parish. Currently, Helen’s volunteer work with the parish includes: being a member of the Parish Pastoral Council, Liturgy Group, and Master Planning Committee; running the Advent reflection series last Christmas and the Lenten reflection series this Lent; organising readers and commentators for weekend masses at CTK; and bringing communion to the elderly in aged care.
Although some people think Helen is a religious sister, she says she never seriously considered becoming one. The women’s liberation movement and the sexual revolution – which happened when Helen was in her 20s – did not encourage Catholic women to seek fulfilment in life as a religious sister. As well, Helen was married briefly in her early 20s; her husband died in a skiing accident just 18 months after they were married. But the call to a life immersed in religious activities came early to Helen. Growing up in a very religious family, she took her faith and being involved in the church seriously, or, as she says, ‘I just got it!’ She also grew up in the post-Vatican II era, when there were more opportunities for lay people to be more active in church than before. As a teenager, she was a member of the Legion of Mary and did all the things she still does today, like visiting the elderly, which she enjoyed. Later, she joined the Redemptorist Lay Mission Society where she ran weekend retreats, and helped organise and run 10-week spiritual development courses. At university, Helen did two Bachelor’s degrees: a BA in English and Psychology (at Melbourne University), and a Bachelor in Theology (at Yarra Theological Union). After a few years of working in HR, travelling, and teaching English, Psychology, and History in schools, Helen completed a Diploma in Education and thus began her eventual life career as a Religious Education Coordinator. As Helen notes, being a Religious Education teacher brought together the skills she learnt earlier in life with the Redemptorists, her knowledge base from her Bachelor in Theology, and her ‘direction in life, which is to be an active Christian.’
In retirement, Helen continues to nurture her passion for the church and for teaching. Helen obviously enjoys formal study as she is currently pursing a Master’s degree in TESOL (Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages). Which makes one suspect that ‘retirement’ is not really in Helen’s vocabulary!
