Death brings new life for one family this Easter

By Tanya Connor | The Catholic Free Press

HOPEDALE – A response to the tragic death of a loved one is helping to usher in new life, as a family comes to the Church this Easter.

Seven family members are preparing to receive sacraments at Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish.

The matriarch of the family, Joyce Jacques, 70, said she was baptized Catholic, since her father was Catholic, but she grew up attending Protestant services with her mother. She and Louis Jacques, a devout Catholic, married in the Catholic Church, and she sometimes attended Mass with him.

She said she had wanted to complete her initiation, but Mr. Jacques’ tragic death made her really want to do it. He was killed in a car accident in July 2022 in Montana on a trip with friends.

Now Mrs. Jacques is to receive her first Communion and confirmation at Sacred Heart’s Easter Vigil March 30.

At that vigil Mass, Heather Clabbers, 41, and Jaime Fernandez, 45, (Mrs. Jacques’ daughters from a previous marriage) are to be baptized and receive their first Communion and confirmation. Also receiving those three sacraments are Mrs. Fernandez’ children: Ava, 14; Richard III, age 12, and Brielle, 10. Her husband, Richard Fernandez II, 45, is to receive his first Communion and confirmation.

Mrs. Fernandez said the family had been thinking about receiving the sacraments in recent years.

Mr. Fernandez said he was baptized Catholic but not sent to religious education classes as a child. His mother was Protestant, but his grandfather was Catholic.

“We would go to church twice a year, for Easter and Christmas Eve,” he said.

Inspired by Mr. Jacques, a faith-filled, well-loved man whose funeral in Bellingham was packed,  he started to read the Bible, he said.

“I didn’t know any program” like the RCIA was available for adults, he said.  
Mrs. Jacques said that writing about her husband after he died made her really want to take that step. Following a suggestion of her daughter-in-law, Andrea Jacques, she used “Storyworth” to reflect on his life. (The website welcome.storyworth.com guides families in writing their memories and preserving them in a book.)

“When I wrote the story I was so inspired by his faith ... [faith] that things would always work out,” Mrs. Jacques said.

He “inspired me to go through [the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults to prepare for the sacraments] now,” she said. He was patient, kind, very religious, and saw the positive side of everything “because he could turn everything over to God. I just decided I want what he had. Since his death, things haven’t bothered me as much; I don’t get rattled the way I used to.”
A first Communion also drew the family to church.

Ms. Clabbers said her ex-husband, Matthew Clabbers, had been bringing their twins, Tyler and Ryan Clabbers, to Sacred Heart, where the boys, now 9, made their first Communion last April.

Mrs. Fernandez said she and her husband and children came to Sacred Heart for the first time when they attended the first Communion Mass.

“I think that helped give us a little push [to pursue reception of the sacraments] because we liked the church and Father Bill,” she said. “And they’ve been amazing in helping us with this.” Explaining how the pastor, Father William C. Konicki, impressed her, she said, “Just the way he was preaching and talking, personable, very friendly,” and good with the children.
“We want our kids to have something to believe in, honor my stepfather (Mr. Jacques), and we just feel like it’s the time to do this,” she said.

Last September they started RCIA gatherings, led by Deacon Thomas E. Tierney. In the RCIA with them are Mikaela Santiago, receiving all three sacraments, and Anne Brisbois, receiving first Communion and confirmation, Deacon Tierney said.

“I feel like I need to practice what I’m preaching [with my sons],” Ms. Clabbers said, explaining why she decided to participate. She figured she couldn’t tell the twins to go to church and not go herself.

“They’ve been fantastic,” Deacon Tierney said of the family of RCIA participants. “They have a home study guide. They come back [to the gatherings] with deep questions.” He said he asked in a homily that the congregation read the entire Gospel of Mark, and Mr. Fernandez was the only person who reported that he did so.

As the family prepares to be fully initiated into the Church at the Easter Vigil, Mrs. Jacques said, “I’m very excited.”

Added Ms. Clabbers, “I think we all are.” They are excited “to have gone through the process … as a family.”