Sister Marionette Coll has lived through 18 different U.S. presidents, and she’s 8 years older than the country of Yugoslavia.
SCRANTON, Pa. — A warm, welcoming reception for Sister Marionette Coll as the IHM nun celebrated her 104th birthday surrounded by friends in the cafeteria of Our Lady of Peace Residence in Scranton.
“Well, it feels good,” said Sister Marionette. “You get a lot of attention.”
Originally from Pittsburgh, Sister Marionette was born on November 17th, 1921. She was one of twelve children in a large Irish Catholic family.
Her faith led her to join the convent at the age of 17, a decision she remembers vividly. “When I came to the convent, I came on the night train from Pittsburgh, by myself. The sisters got me a special card for clergy. And I wasn’t clergy,” said Marionette.
Over her nine decades of service to God and more than a century of life, Sister has seen a great deal.
She has lived through 18 different U.S. Presidents, she’s 8 years older than the country of Yugoslavia, and she was even alive before the start of and witnessed the fall of the Soviet Union.
But her favorite part of it all has been working with kids.
“This one kid said to me one day, You never get sick, do you? And I said, ‘No, so don’t plan on it. Because he wanted me to miss the damn school. I never missed a day of school,” said Marionette.
Sister plans to continue her daily games of Scrabble and chatting with those around her.
Just a few of the things she credits with getting her to 104 years old.
“I take that, you take it one day at a time, and you try to make that a good day,” said Marionette.