My aunt, Sister Annata Brockman, formerly of Edmonton Alberta Canada and then resident of Halifax Nova Scotia, bears the honour of having a Catholic elementary/middle/junior high school named after her, by the Edmonton Catholic School Board. This is particularly rare given the Catholic propensity to particularly honor holy people after death.

Announced May 19, 2008 the Edmonton Catholic School Board is celebrating her 21 years of service that she gave to the city’s schools and school children. She was principal of St Mark, St Dominic and St Andrew Schools, specializing in elementary and middle school grades. She was also the last religious school principal in the district.

After retiring from teaching, Sister Annata worked as a pastoral associate at St Joseph’s Basilica handling everything from coordinating RCIA to religious education and sacramental programs. She was the chief coordinator for Wayne Gretzky’s wedding to Janet Jones which was held at the Basilica in 1988. That wedding was the Canadian equivalent of the Royal Wedding (Prince Charles and Lady Dianna) because of Wayne’s stature as the leading hockey player of the century. In fact, the CBC called it ‘Hockey’s royal wedding.’

The newly opened school is situated in [[The Hamptons]] in West Edmonton area and have a capacity of 500 kindergarten to grade 9 students. Many of my family members – cousins, aunts and uncles, two sisters and my mother – attended the school grand opening which was also attended by the archbishop of Edmonton diocese and the minister of education for Alberta. Sister gave an awesome speech which my cousin recorded.

Sister Annata, always the educator,  passed away October 25, 2016.

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