Sister Bernice Heinz (formerly Sr. Madeline Marie)
May 3, 1928 – December 23, 2021

We remember with gratitude the life of Sister Bernice Heinz, who was a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur for 76 years. On December 23, 2021, she died peacefully at Mercy Retirement and Care Center in Oakland, Calif, at the age of 93.

Born in Gonzales, Calif, Bernice and her five sisters all attended Sacred Heart School in Salinas. Her parents then enrolled her as a boarder in Moreland Notre Dame High School in Watsonville. She came home on weekends, and in her sophomore year started working as a stock girl on Saturdays at 'The Elegant Dress Shop'. She made a grand total of $3.00 each Saturday.

When she initially told her mother she was thinking of entering the convent, her mother said, "Sit down. You'll feel better after you've had a hot dinner." Bernice did feel better after dinner, but still felt called to become a Sister and join her sister who had entered the Saratoga novitiate earlier.

As Sister Madeline Marie, Bernice became a teacher and found that teaching was a natural and joyous fit, one she excelled at for 63 years. Sometimes, though, she shook her head in amazement at the things she was asked to do, like teach 75 first graders at Dolores School in Santa Barbara. Or start a choir for third- to sixth-graders at Notre Dame School in Yuba City. With musical abilities, but no experience teaching choral music, the assignment was challenging to say the least. But as Sister learned early on, "You get the grace of the charge." Within a year she was teaching the children three-part harmony.

For 27 special years Sr. Bernice taught language arts at Madonna del Sasso School in Salinas, stressing the importance of speaking and writing correctly. In 2008, her students and the Salinas community surprised her with the Crystal Apple Award–an honor given to outstanding teachers who daily go "above and beyond" for the students and the school.

In her retirement years, Sister Bernice lived at the Province Center Residence in Belmont and then moved to Mercy Retirement and Care Center in Oakland in 2019. Looking back on her early years and her life and ministries as a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur, she reflected that "God has been holding my hand all my life".

The Sisters are grateful to healthcare coordinators Ann Comer and Sister Sharon Joyer, SNDdeN, and to Mercy Retirement & Care Center in Oakland, where Sr. Bernice received excellent care. She will be deeply missed by her many friends, former colleagues and students, by her sisters, Dolores Heinz Pia, JoAnne Heinz Sinatra, and Barbara Heinz McDermaid, her nieces and nephews, and by all her Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur. Her sisters Rosalie Heinz Rebello and Sister Marie (Joseph Julie) Heinz, SNDdeN predeceased her.

Mass will be celebrated for Sister Bernice on Saturday, April 2, 2022 at 11:00 a.m. at Cunningham Chapel on the campus of Notre Dame de Namur University in Belmont.

Memorial contributions may be made to Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, 1520 Ralston Avenue, Belmont, CA 94002 or online at snddeneastwest.org . Learn more about Sister Bernice or share a memory at snddeneastwest.org/bernice-heinz