Sister Elizabeth Looney

As a teenager at Sacred Heart Academy, Sister Elizabeth “Liz” Looney had never heard the word charism nor did she know what it meant. Yet, as she experienced the spirit of the Sisters and related with them, she felt truly loved by them. She sensed something about their spirit that attracted her. “I want to be like that”, she thought. After graduating from Sacred Heart, she applied and was accepted into the Sisters of St. Joseph in 1956.

S. Liz earned her BA degree at Brentwood College and her first ministry was teaching in elementary schools, first at St. Angela Hall Academy and then at St. Francis de Chantal Parish in Wantagh. She was then assigned to teach Home Economics at Stella Maris H.S. During that time, she completed a Masters Degree in Nutrition and Dietetics at New York University. In order to become a registered dietitian and a member of the American Dietetic Association a year’s internship was required. S. Liz went to Calvary Hospital for this and there she found her life’s direction in ministry.

Calvary Hospital is a hospital dedicated to palliative care of advanced cancer patients. S. Liz worked there with the Medical Director Dr. James Cimmino, a brilliant renal specialist who had helped to develop the a-v fistula which is still used in dialysis today. He wanted to help advanced cancer patients who had been abandoned by the medical profession because it was felt nothing else could be done for them. By contrast, the care and concern he modeled were amazing. His attitude was, “There is always something that can be done for them.”

S. Liz was inspired and this concept became her focus. Her belief is that food is more than nutrition. Persons who are seriously ill are dependent and have lost control over their lives. Food is one area where they can make some decisions. To ask them what they want to eat and to provide it enables an area for control. “It doesn’t make them recover, but it adds some quality to their lives”, she believes. S. Liz soon became the Director of the Nutritional Services Department at Calvary. For 26 years, she worked with patients to make whatever life was left to them the best it could be. During this time, she also served for two years as President of the American Dietetic Association of New York State.

In 2001, S. Helen Clancey offered S. Liz the opportunity to establish the Nutritional Services Department at Maria Regina Residence in preparation for licensure by the New York State Department of Health. S. Liz accepted. She did not engage an outside server,but trained her staff on how to be patient focused. She motivated her staff to recognize the importance of nutritional care in maintaining each resident’s individuality, dignity. ability and independence. If a resident requested a food that wasn’t at the facility, S. Liz and her staff searched until they could buy it. Each individual was seen as important.

For 23 years S. Liz tried to make daily residence at Maria Regina as homelike as possible. The small effort of providing some chosen food meant so much to someone who had so few choices. Because of their long-term care, she also knew their family members and friends.

For S. Liz, it was truly a privilege. Looking back, she feels the opportunity to make someone’s day brighter and better, of restoring some control, of trying to take care of the “all’ of a person has been more of a blessing for her. “It’s been great!” she says with a quiet smile. “It’s been great!”