COMMENT | Since arriving in then- Malaya in 1954 Sister Enda Ryan (Sister Enda) was like a battery that was nowhere close to running out.

She and her band of sisters from the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary (FMM) hit the ground running, immediately after arrival.

Within months, led by Sister Enda, the missionaries set up the Ave Maria Welfare Clinic in Petaling Jaya, and also established the Assunta all-girls school in 1955.

The clinic eventually transformed itself into the Assunta Hospital, one of the country’s earliest private medical centres, which is still basking in the Franciscan brand of service.

For 31 years, with a continuous surge of fresh voltage within her, Sister Enda served as an...