Sister Helen Trella

Sister Helen Trella, 99, of Woodbridge, passed peacefully at St. Joseph’s Senior Home in Woodbridge on Thursday, September 27, 2018.

She was born in McAdoo, Pennsylvania.

Sincerity and kindness are the hallmarks of Sister Eustace Trella, with her reassuring sweet smile. Her approach implies “Love God and seek the good of others.” Nursing and education have been the ways she has served God and others as a Little Servant Sister of the Immaculate Conception. Born in 1919 into a close-knit family in McAdoo, PA she was baptized Helen in St. Cunegunda Church and attended the parochial school.

Felt called by Jesus to the religious life, in 1936 she entered the community as a candidate at St. Joseph’s Convent in Woodbridge, NJ, which at the time cared for orphans. Unable to travel to the Motherhouse and Novitiate in Poland due to the changing political situation, she waited patiently and helped the Sisters at the home before becoming a postulant in January 1942. Great was the joy of the pioneering community when the American Novitiate was established in Cherry Hill, NJ, with the approval of the Holy See. Receiving the religious name of Sister Eustace, she began her novitiate with three companions, on July 1, 1942.  Two years later her desire was realized with her first profession of the vows of chastity, poverty and obedience, and eventually her perpetual profession in 1949, a great day for her.     

Sister Eustace studied and graduated from Holy Ghost Hospital - Nursing in Cambridge, Mass from 1944 to 1948.  She then worked for six years as a visiting home nurse in Woodbridge, NJ and environs. The following five years saw her visiting the sick by day and taking evening classes at Seton Hall University in East Orange, NJ.  After a year of student teaching, in 1961 Sister Eustace went to Buffalo, NY to teach at Visitation School and attended St. Joseph’s College there. In 1965 she was graduated with a B.S.B.A. She taught at St. Matthew School in National Park, NJ altogether for six years and at Our Lady of Lourdes School in Milltown for two years. Versatile and ready to respond to the need, Sister Eustace nursed at St. Mary’s Catholic Home in Cherry Hill, NJ for five years, and was back to visiting home nursing for three years in Woodbridge, NJ. From 1981 for 21 years Sister Eustace worked as a nurse at the Strawberry Hill Senior Citizen Day Center under the auspices of St. Joseph Convent.

As Beth Toth, a member of the day center time wrote in the News Tribune in 1992: “The Medical Person is Sister Mary Eustace of Woodbridge. I’ve known her for nine years. She is much more. She is the “Spirit and the Soul” of Strawberry Hill.  She helps serve meals, and always has a cheerful word for everyone. If you’ve got a headache, sore back or arms, etc. she is there to administer - an “Angel of Mercy”… She seems to be eternally ageless, always on the go. Being shutterbugs, most everyone wants their picture taken to send family and friends or relatives. When asked to pose, by the Grotto or the Flower Circle, they’d answer anywhere with Sister Eustace.” She is beloved by all who know her… She deserves a public acknowledgement of her goodness and her giving ways, a typical “Sister Theresa” type”.

In 2002 Sister Eustace left her senior citizens on account of frail health for St. Joseph’s Nursing Home in Woodbridge, N.J. Here she was cared for by her much-loved community of the Little Servant Sisters.  She cheered everyone by her presence and prayer ministry. Serene, she reflected the well-worn pages of her Bible and rosary beads.

Sister Helen is survived by her religious sisters of “Little Servant Sisters of Immaculate Conception” and her 3 siblings; Mary, Stanley and George.

Visitation will be at the Chapel of St. Joseph’s Nursing Home, 3 St Joseph’s Terr., Woodbridge, NJ on Sunday, September 30, 2018, from 5-9 P.M.

Funeral mass will be on Monday, October 1, 2018 at 10 A.M. at St. Joseph’s Chapel. Interment will follow in St. Joseph’s Cemetery Blackwood, NJ

Funeral arrangements have been entrusted to Ana Maria Zevallos/Skrocki, Home for Funerals, 467 State Street, Perth Amboy, NJ

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