On Sunday afternoon the Catholic community in Grayson County bid farewell to one of its own during the Farewell Open House for Sister Audrey Recktenwald.

Sister Audrey came to the county 13 years ago and has become a pillar in the community and an advocate for the underprivileged.

“Sister Audrey is the real thing,” said St Joseph’s Parish Father Brian Johnson. “She lives the Gospel with all that she does. She is always kind and generous and thinks of other people and what is best for them.”

Sister Audrey has served the Catholic Church as a nun since she graduated from Presentation Academy in Louisville in 1953.

“She knew early that she was called in the vocation and after she attended a retreat in her senior year of high school she knew she wanted to work with the order she is with,” said Sister Audrey’s sister, Joyce Kelty.

Until the retreat Sister Audrey had been taught by nuns from the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, who worked as teachers and in the nursing field, said Kelty.

“She did not want to work in either field. She wanted to work with the poor,” said Kelty. “The retreat was held by a priest from the Missionary Servants of the most Holy Trinity and the nuns in this order worked with the poor.”

After graduating from high school in May, Sister Audrey entered the order in August and was immediately sent to nurse’s training and ended up as a nurse practitioner.

“Once she began her training she found she loved the nursing field,” said Kelty.

Sister Audrey would spend the next 20 years traveling in the south and working with the poor by providing much needed medical care to the disadvantage.

While working with the poor community of Hurtsboro, Alabama Sister Audrey opened a medical clinic. The residents of Hurtsboro, who had no medical treatment available to them, were skeptical and did not readily accept the medical facility offered by Sister Audrey.

So she went door to door and held clinics in the homes and yards of the community until she gained the trust of the residents.

“I carried a diaper bag in the back of my Pinto with simple medical necessities such as clean water, Neosporin and Tylenol to do what I could to help the families, who were extremely poor,” said Sister Audrey.

“She is not pushy but has a way of including you in projects and you find yourself helping out before you know it,” said Sister Audrey’s brother Jim Recktenwald. “One summer the clinic in Alabama needed a new septic system and during my summer break I became her bulldozer. Me and my shovel helped out.”

The John 23rd Center is still offering medical treatment to the residence of Alabama today.

After transferring many times and settling in several different states through ut the eastern United States Sister Audrey would later travel to Grayson County, Kentucky.

In 1996, Sister Audrey was offered to opportunity to return to her home state of Kentucky and serve the Tri Parish Area in Peonia. This put her close to home and allowed her to spend time with her mother, who died at the age of 99.

Then in 2000 she transferred again, but this time it was just a few miles down the road to St. Joseph’s Catholic Church to help minister to the poor.

Sister Audrey put her skills and knowledge to use and together with the Grayson County Alliance started the Prescription Drug Program to help provide medicine to those who are unable to provide medication in Grayson County. “One piece of my ministry here was to serve as a volunteer with the prescription project,” said Sister Audrey. “We met so many people who had a need for medication and could not afford them and I had the connection with the pharmaceutical companies so we set the program up.

“I feel very blessed to have worked in this community,” said Sister Audrey. “Everyone here comes together to help those who have a need. ”

She will not be replaced at St. Joseph’s but the Saint Vincent DePaul Society will be setting up an outreach program at the parish.

Sister Audrey leaves no regrets behind and says her greatest joy has been being a witness for the Catholic Church out in the community.