| Darlene Arbuckle: "She Knows Everything" |
| ...SJA's Administrative Associate and TroubleShooter |
There has got to be some mathematical term to describe Darlene Arbuckle,
administrative associate at SJA. She has been the constant that has
prevailed, unperturbed, through every imaginable kind of change that has
marked St. Joan of Arc’s history during the last 24 years. That’s right, Darlene
has lasted that long through changes in administration and personnel,
directives from the Vatican and some even closer to home, and moves that have
taken her office from a small space in what is now Grace House, to the old
convent, and now to her present airy quarters in the new Parish Center.
In 1977, when she was 38, Darlene answered an ad in the Star Tribune for part-time work as a secretary at St. Joan’s where Fr. Harvey Egan was pastor. She was a wife and mother of three small children at the time and already had a part time job, but she was bored because it was a one-person office. “I needed to be around people,” she says. She told Harvey that and he hired her on the spot.
Darlene had never heard of St. Joan’s before, and describes herself at that time as “naïve”. Her family, whose home parish was Holy Rosary, had a good friend there in Father Coburn, a Dominican, who was then associate pastor of that church. When he heard that Darlene had taken a job at St. Joan’s, he told her that it was a “far out place,” and demanded that she set up a meeting between him and Fr. Egan, whom he called “The Rogue”, so that he could see if it was a suitable place for her to work. Darlene says that the two priests talked for a long time, and when it was over, Fr. Coburn told her she would be safe there. As it turned out, she has been.
Right off Darlene found a good friend and mentor in Ferry Deslauriers who was parish secretary at the time. Ferry, who was in her seventies then, was a charter member of St. Joan’s and had already been working there for about 10 years when Darlene came to “help her out a little”. “I loved Ferry,” Darlene says. “Right off she took me under her wing and taught me everything she knew. She educated me about Harvey for one thing. Some things I really needed to know.” Eventually Ferry became a “mother figure” to Darlene, and even after she quit working at age 82 the two spent time together and always checked in by phone at least once each week until Ferry’s death at age 89.
Their office was a small room to the left of the stairs on the side entrance to what is now Grace House. Staff meetings were held in what was Fr. Egan’s family room across from the office. Monday mornings were devoted to note taking by the staff as Harvey dictated his directives for the coming week. The staff consisted of Cy and Joan Speltz, Nancy Anderson, John McGowan and a few others who carried out the work of the parish at the time.
Darlene’s job then consisted of typing Sunday School lessons, working on the Bulletin and counting money on Monday mornings. When that latter job got to be too much for her, she recruited first her mother, then her sister and later a sister-in-law to help. Darlene’s sister, Joyce Kielas, stayed on for 10 years, and only left reluctantly eleven years ago after computers took over her work. That was a hard time for the sisters who are very close and found being separated painful.
Early on Darlene brought her mother to a gym liturgy one Sunday morning. After it was over, Helen Anderson told her daughter, “Now take me to church.” She was won over before too long, though, and became an enthusiastic supporter of St. Joan’s.
Sitting in her comfortable, window-filled office today, Darlene smiles as
she remembers those old days. ”Life has been good,” she says, ”I’ve had my
ups and downs like everybody, but always there was goodness and fun and
underneath it all the love that held us all together.”
She recalls walking across the parking lot with Harvey one day when he
stopped, opened up his arms and held them high as he looked at the blank
brick wall ahead of them. “Just imagine a welcoming Christ up there,” he
said. Within a week there it was, the Christ figure that today proclaims
whose we are in this place.
Confidant and at ease today, Darlene has come a long way from that timid 38-year-old who was only looking for a temporary part-time job to fill her days back in 1977. “I love this place and everyone here,” she says. “We are a very cohesive staff. I have a sense of relaxation about my job. There’s nothing here to be up tight about.”
She can’t hide the pride in her voice as she recites some statistics: The Arc Angle goes out to 4,250 households eight times a year; Sunday School serves over 800 children in grades 1 through 6; 150 in grades 7 through 12; 45 confirmands this year; 80 plus first communicants and 150 baptisms; many more weddings than funerals.
Her official job includes scheduling room requests in the Parish Center and Hospitality Hall, arranging Baptism classes and dates, editing the Arc Angle and the Bulletin and working with Jeff Rholl, SJA webmaster. Unofficially, it’s Darlene who others go to for answers that they don’t have. She is the old hand, the trouble shooter, the one who makes sure things go smoothly, and the one who demonstrates personally the hospitality that marks St. Joan’s. Kind of a modern day Ferry Deslauriers.
“Darlene is the easiest person in the world to get along with,” says Gloria Bandy, parishioner and office volunteer. “She is friendly and cheerful, and always has time. If anything breaks down, all you have to do is call Darlene. She can fix anything.”
The accolades continue:
“I’ve grown here,” Darlene says. “I started as a kid and am now an
adult. Working here has helped me become a thinker. I try to analyze things
more. Being surrounded by vital, caring people and hearing their stories has
helped my spiritual life too. I have a greater appreciation for life and
those around me.”
St. Joan’s is still very much peace and justice oriented, Darlene says, which Harvey started. But with the addition of Julie Madden to the staff, the church has expanded into other areas such as affordable housing, a subject dear to her heart. “My daughter pays over $1200 a month for rent,” she states. That’s a sin in her mind. “How can a person get ahead when most of your pay is gone in rent?”
Darlene and her husband, of 40 years, Jack, have two daughters, Theresa and Jeannie, and one son, John. These have produced 7 grandchildren that make Darlene’s eyes light up when asked about them.
The Arbuckle house has become too big for the two of them and they could probably sell it for a profit, but where to go? In the early days this home was where all the kids came to play and were welcomed. That kind of involvement has made Darlene and Jack icons in their neighborhood. She tells about being at Cub one day recently when a young man came up to her and said hi. She couldn’t place him for a minute when he told her to think about the nearby park. A light went on and she remembered. “Todd!” she said, “Todd Dupree.” He grinned and said he knew she would remember that he was one of the kids that used to hang out at the Arbuckles. Darlene feels flattered that he remembered and came up to speak to her.
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