Mary Sue Terrasi embodied the pro-life movement so passionately that her efforts and impact still continue — even after her death.

(0:27) Mary Sue Terrasi embodied everything Pope Francis refers to when he talks about “blue jean saints.” We learn about how she and her husband Bill met, and her high-risk pregnancy and Hodgkin’s diagnosis that led to some challenging decisions.

(4:50) We learn of the beautiful twin girls Mary Sue had, and her daughter Elizabeth speaks about Mary Sue’s constant devotion to prayer, morning, noon, and night.

(6:37) Bill reflects on Mary Sue’s career as a geriatric nurse and the copious volunteering she’d also do, specifically with pro-life organizations and senior centers. Their daughter Amy mentions the music therapy-type volunteer work the two would do together, and the joy and spirit Mary Sue brought to senior citizens.

(10:04) Mary Sue’s real passion was for the pro-life movement. Bill and Amy share memories of Mary Sue’s gentle, compassionate outreach to women who were considering or recovering from abortions.

(14:50) After Mary Sue’s death in 2019, Bill decided to start an organization that would uphold her legacy and further her passion. He created the Ius Vitae Mary Sue Terrasi Memorial Fund, a scholarship essay contest for young, pro-life students.

Reporting by Dan Meloy; narration by Emily Mentock; production by Ron Pangborn

Title: Mary Sue’s Legacy

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Narrator: When Bill met Mary Sue, it was love at first sight.

Narrator: Mary Sue confronted the issue of abortion personally when she and bill found out they were expecting twins early in their marriage. It was a celebration that was quickly cut short.

Narrator: Hodgkin's lymphoma is a form of cancer which attacks the lymphatic system, which is part of your immune system. It's treatable. Around 70% of those with stage four Hodgkin's lymphoma will survive for five years or more after being diagnosed. But it is treated with chemotherapy and sometimes radiation therapy, both treatments that are extremely harmful to babies in utero. Mary Sue had 14 specialists on her case, including a specialist brought in from Amsterdam, and they were at odds about what to do.

Bill: They were debating for a long time on how to do this. They said, "We know what to do about premature twins, and we know what to do about stage three, stage four Hodgkin's. We don't know really what to do about both at the same time." So they said, we have a bunch of neonatologists that want the babies to cook, and we have some neonatologists that either want to take the babies early or terminate And in order to save — not neonatologists oncologists that want to terminate and save her, treat her, or take the babies early and take her chances. So there was this tug of war between the neonatologist and the the oncologist that wanted to treat the disease. And this did nothing more than to just seal her conviction and our conviction.

Narrator: Mary Sue refused the treatment that would be harmful for her babies. It was a big decision for Bill and Mary Sue. For a disease that, especially at the time demanded early detection and treatment for survival, forgoing the treatment was a bold choice. But several months later, Mary Sue delivered two healthy baby twin girls, Elizabeth and Amy.

Bill: Lo and behold, long story short there, she birthed the babies. They were very premature, but they're now the healthiest, most durable, very excellent all-state athletes and everything. And they lived a very beautiful, wonderful, healthy life.

Bill: As she grew older, and she became a real activist on the pro-life movement. And she became stronger and stronger over the years and more and more convicted. And nothing was gray to her.

Narrator: Mary Sue was a geriatric nurse at a nursing home in Monroe, Michigan, a job she left when she chose to become a stay at home mom, only to return as a volunteer when her passion for the pro-life movement was fueled. Her new life scheduled volunteering for pro-life ministries and prayer with a near monastic rigor.

Elizabeth: She was always praying, not just late at night, but even during the day, after dinner, she'd be on her knees.

Narrator: This is her daughter, Elizabeth.

Elizabeth: Some of the most vivid memories are when I would wake up in the middle of the night and she would be sitting on the top of the stairs, praying the rosary. And I would probably just be taking a bathroom break or something like that. And she'd say, "Hey, Beth, I'm saying a rosary for the unborn, do you want to join me?" And of course in my teenage years, I said, ?No, I'm going to bed." So she was always praying, not just at late at night, but even during the day, after dinner, she'd be on her knees, praying in front of the Sacred Heart picture. In the car on the way to school, on the way home from school, she'd be asking us to pray.

Bill: She was a geriatric nurse by career. And so her passion to care for the elderly that were sick and invalid, that was that's just what she did. And when she decided to forgo that career for a while to be a stay at home mom, she eventually returned to that in the way of volunteership and part-time employment, again, tending to the elderly and the invalid, elderly in particular, and would bring her guitar and sing to them, and sing old religious songs to them. She volunteered at Heartbeat, here in Monroe for several years. As she was being a young mother, raising her own young kids, just finding the time in between all the stuff she had to do.

Narrator: Heartbeat of Monroe is a pro-life organization that offers free services and education on pregnancy and parenting for mothers.

Bill: So it'd be her employment at nursing homes, her volunteership at Heartbeat, and Frenchtown Township Senior Center, and then the prayer at the Planned Parenthood centers.

Elizabeth: It was always just a very big part of our lives. I remember her helping at a local organization called Heartbeat. She would go pray with women, she would counsel women, she would donate clothes for women in need who had children and weren't sure what to do. So it was just, it was very much a part of her day to day life

Amy: I actually remember specifically going with her a few times to the adult daycare centers in Frenchtown, and she was just so warm and welcoming to the senior citizens.

Narrator: This is her daughter, Amy.

Amy: She actually prepared for these music therapy type sessions. Her and I would be at the house kind of gathering our music sheets and deciding what kinds of music we wanted to play. We would practice the songs on our guitar and, you know, gather everything up and then have it ready to go for the days that we were there with the seniors. Seeing the smile on their faces was just priceless, how much fun they were having. Because music really does touch the soul. And it just really was a special way of caring for them, as opposed to just like giving them their meds and having them do puzzles. It just kind of helps them interact more and just be more lively and spirited.

Narrator: While Mary Sue could bring joy and celebrate with some of those on the margins at her volunteering, she was painfully aware of the stakes of the pro-life debate. She had stared at them in the ultrasound images of her own very much alive daughters she'd been encouraged to abort. And this sorrowful recognition is what led Mary Sue from the gratifying music-filled visits with the elderly and young mothers to the trenches of the issue: abortion clinics.

Bill: She was an activist. We would often go to the Planned Parenthood centers, abortion centers, and you know, do prayer vigils on the sidewalk, sidewalk counseling. And she was deathly afraid, uncertain of herself to do sidewalk counseling that she, you know, she just did not have that confidence, but she did it.

Amy: She always said, we don't know whose mind we're going to change, unless they state it specifically, but if we can change one person's mind by being here today and speaking out and just praying, then we've done our job. You never know if someone has driven by or walked by, or maybe has walked up into the clinic and has been pleaded with to change their mind, you never know if maybe they turned around on the other side of the building and left. Only God knows that.

Narrator: Any woman that walked up to the abortion clinic to encounter Mary Sue wouldn't be confronted by the domineering, condemning voice that pro-lifers often get depicted as. They would have met the calm, soothing, gentle demeanor that Mary Sue came to embody.

Amy: She also told me a story about a friend from college of hers who had had an abortion. She was explaining how one of her friends had confessed to having an abortion and how she felt so terribly for it. And my mom wasn't judgmental at all. She didn't, like, try to be condescending about, you know, the mistakes she made. She was very, very gentle and compassionate, and explained to her friend that God is merciful and forgiving and that she can have a conversion and just accept any other children that he blesses her with later. So, you know, her education there about not only the sanctity of life, but the mercy of God and how he's all forgiving and that anybody can change. So I thought that was special, too. Like she, wasn't just trying to be like, "Don't have an abortion, this is wrong." She truly had the Christian, warm, comforting, compassionate mindset and heart towards everybody that she interacted with.

Bill: My oldest daughter likes to tell one of how, when she was young, she accompanied her mom to — who just befriended and became supportive of a young mother that was considering abortion and wasn't sure she was ready to birth a baby. And my wife gave her so much love and support and reassurance that it was all going to be okay that she went forward with it, even though she did not feel she was ready. And my wife continued to support her after the birth with, you know, all kinds of support and helping with childcare and helping with supplies, baby needs and all this good stuff.

Bill: When she passed, of course it was devastating. It was very, very hard several years, very difficult and it was very difficult to — I donated or dedicated my life 24/7 to taking care of her for several years so that the good Lord finally took her. I said, "Okay, now what? Now purpose is there in life?"

Narrator: Bill wanted to honor Mary Sue and her legacy in some way. To take that relentless light of hers that poured love into every dark corner of the earth and keep it going. The question was how.

Bill: I thought of something supporting cancer, because I had researched it so very, very hard. And I had talked to experts across the country, including a naturopathic experts and integrative oncology experts, which employ both conventional and an alternative means of treating cancer. And I'm very, very, very convicted to that much more can be done than what is being done. And I thought of doing something in that regard, I guess you could say that that was kind of my passion.

Narrator: But Bill realized that he didn't want to start an organization supporting his passion. This ministry was for Mary Sue. And once he made that realization, the foundation's purpose was clear.

Bill: I decided to forego that for a while and concentrate on, on her legacy and her passion.

Narrator: That desire birthed the Ius Vitae Mary Sue Terrasi Memorial Fund. Ius Vitae is Latin for "right to life." An organization that sought not to be a competing entity to the many beautiful pro-life charitable organizations that Bill and his wife loved to support, but a scholarship fund that would challenge young minds to wrestle with the same pro-life issues that Mary Sue wrestled with from a hospital bed many years ago. They sold t-shirts to raise funds for the scholarship. They said, "Mary Sue's Army" on the front above tiny infant footprints, and an army was very much the intention. To have the prayerful persistent compassion of Mary Sue multiply in a younger generation of advocates.

Bill: Because we all knew that it was the younger generation that's going to carry this forward. We always have known that and said, so let's create a scholarship to the young — to inspire the young generation to be the leaders, to be the ones that really carry the banner.

Narrator: The scholarship fund would be an essay contest hosted by St. Mary's Catholic Central in Monroe, and would award a $1,500 scholarship toward the winning recipient. The first award was given last year in October. Bill's hope is to expand the program every year.

Bill: We're going to expand it to other entities, like other high schools and maybe public high schools, lots of very good Catholic and Christian — non-Catholic Christian families, that have various pro-life youngsters that also deserve a chance to tell their story and to carry the banner.

Narrator: Monica Burkhardt, a freshman at St. Mary's was the first scholarship.

Monica: I wrote about how as a Catholic I'm pro-life in all aspects of life, that includes the unborn, the elderly, and just anyone, and that everyone deserves love, dignity, and respect. I'm really honored to have won. And I think that it gives me a little bit more confidence that I will be a better leader of the movement. I can be a good example to others that want to get involved in the movement.

Narrator: That was Mary Sue's impact. She wasn't an isolated witness that left people in awe and then content to remain on the sidelines. She galvanized supporters for the movement. Prayer warriors in the trenches, believers speaking out on social media and in classrooms. What better legacy to leave than the spirit of Mary Sue in the hearts and minds of those who continue her work?

Detroit Stories is a production of Detroit Catholic and the communications department of the Archdiocese of Detroit. Find us on Apple podcasts, Spotify, Google, or wherever you get your podcasts.