Sister Mary Laetitia Plona, 101, died in Holy Family Infirmary, Enfield, CT on September 27, 2008, in her 77th year of religious life in the Felician Sisters Congregation.
Stella Agnes Plona was born in Gardner, MA on December 31, 1906, the fifth child in a family of 16 children born to Alexander and Alexandra (Wiski) Plona. She was a member of St. Joseph's Parish in Gardner and graduated from Gardner High School in 1926. In 1931 she entered the Felician Sisters Community in Lodi, NJ. In 1938, she was transferred to the newly established Our Lady of the Angels Province in Enfield, CT where she professed perpetual vows in 1939. In November of 2006, Sister Laetitia celebrated her 75th anniversary of religious life. On December 31, 2006, she received a congratulatory message from M. Jodi Rell, Governor of Connecticut, on the occasion of her 100th birthday.
Sister Laetitia graduated from the Mercy Hospital School of Nursing, Springfield, MA in 1944, the Catholic University of America School of Nursing, Washington, DC with a BS in Nursing Education in 1947, and Boston College with an MS in Nursing in 1962. Nursing assignments included Our Lady of the Angels Infirmary, Enfield, CT, Blackwell General Hospital, School of Nursing, Blackwell, OK, and St. Joseph Hospital, Bangor, ME. She was on the staff of St. Joseph's for many years, where she organized and directed a school of nursing—a program in practical nursing and later an upward mobility program (LPN to RN). Both programs became accredited by the National League for Nursing, and the school numbered almost 450 graduates, including a number of male nurses. She served as director of the hospital for several years before being named director emeritus and then moved on to the provincial house in Enfield. In 2001 she was admitted to the Infirmary.
Sister Laetitia was predeceased by two brothers: John and Joseph; and eight sisters: Sophie Ambroze, Mae Plona, Josephine Skamarycz. Alice Pastic. Victoria Klonoski, Dorothy Kapiskas, Veronica Bucchere and Sister Mary Febronia of the Daughters of Mary, New Britain, CT. Surviving are one brother, Francis, of Scottsdale, AZ, and four sisters: Regina Kasper of New Britain, CT; Elizabeth Lehrmitt of Rockville, CT; Nancy Narden of W. Hartford, CT; and Cecilia Fasciglione, E. Hartford, CT. She also leaves a devoted nephew, Gus Skamarycz of Tyngsboro, MA as well as several nieces and nephews
Friends will be received beginning at 2 p.m. on September 29 at Our Lady of the Angels Provincial House, 1315 Enfield Street, Enfield. The wake service will begin at 4:30 p.m. followed by Evening Praise. The Mass of Christian Burial will be celebrated in the convent chapel on Tuesday, September 30, at 10:30 a.m. Interment will take place at the Felician Sisters plot in St. Adalbert's Cemetery, Enfield. In her memory, donations to the Felician Sisters' Retirement Fund, 1315 Enfield Street, Enfield, CT 06082 will be gratefully received.