A Brief Biography of Joan Koloze, a Saintly Woman

Introduction

Welcome to this initial work, written in honor of my wife, Joan Marie Angela Morris-Roe Koloze, who was born on 30 December 1951 and died on 8 May 2025.[1]  These mere biographical facts of her life fail to describe the saintly woman that she was here on earth.  It is my privilege, therefore, to begin to tell her story; to elaborate some details of her life between those birth and death points; and to share my pride in her as an advocate in Heaven for all people.

This work is a biography, more specifically a hagiography, which Fr. John A. Hardon defines in his Modern Catholic Dictionary succinctly as “The writings or documents about the saints and saintly people.  It began with records of the martyrs, including the dates and manner of their deaths.  Later it was extended to the lives and data of all the saints” (242-3).[2]

Joan is not yet a saint according to the standards of the Roman rite of our Catholic Church.  However, I am confident that Joan is in Heaven.  She was a victim soul for the majority of her life.  That she endured her suffering but never abandoned her belief that God knew what He was doing is a testament to her faith.

Joan was an ordinary woman; she was a little girl born into a loving family, spent two years in an orphanage, succeeded in school, married, had children, experienced significant health problems, and died.  Joan’s life may not be distinguishable from the billions of other women who have come and gone.  Certainly, other women have lived their faith in the Catholic Church; were devoted to the Virgin Mary; and desired to be good wives, mothers, and grandmothers.

What distinguishes Joan from others is her love: for God, for wanting to be and becoming a good and excellent person, for justice, for her family, for her friends, and for the prolife movement.  Mother Teresa’s famous maxim describes Joan’s life perfectly: “It isn’t necessary for you to do great things; only do little things with great love”.

Joan’s childhood and young adult years

Joan, the middle child of Thomas and Mary Morris, was born on 30 December 1951 and lived with her loving family in the Collinwood area of Cleveland, Ohio.  The children were sent to Parmadale orphanage from 1962-1963 since their mother was recovering from illnesses and their father worked long hours on the railroad to support the family.  Once reunited, the family moved to Euclid, Ohio during the children’s teenaged years.

Joan attended Villa Angela High School in Cleveland and then earned her Education degree from Ursuline College.  While she took her studies seriously, her friends in both schools remarked that she had a great sense of humor.

Once graduated, Joan taught full-time at St. Mary’s School in Chardon, St. Mary Magdalene School in Willoughby, St. Jerome’s School in Cleveland, Sacred Heart of Jesus School in Cleveland, and Catholic Central Elementary School in Springfield.  She substituted at other Catholic schools in the metropolitan Cleveland area.  One of her professional highlights was being voted Teacher of the Year at Saints Peter and Paul School in Garfield Heights in 2002.

Joan’s married life

Joan and I were married on 19 December 1981 at St. Jerome’s Church in Cleveland, Ohio.  We lived at 6917 Rathbun Avenue in Cleveland where we raised our four living children: Gregory, Mary, Ann, and Anthony.

During our residence at the Rathbun home, we had lost two babies by miscarriage.  Joan’s loss over the babies was profound, as this excerpt from a letter sent to her mother on the death of the first child illustrates:

Thanks so much for caring about Jeff + me + our baby in Heaven.  The loss of him or her has been the hardest time I’ve ever had to get through.  The pain is unbelievable, as you know so well.  We buried our baby at Calvary Cemetery on Sunday in a little hole by Jeff’s Mom’s gravestone.  We prayed + left some flowers there too.  It has been very difficult to even talk about it to anyone.  I can’t yet.  In time, maybe I will.  I hope Dad doesn’t think I’ve left him out of everything.  It’s just that I can’t talk about it without crying.  I don’t want to upset anyone.

In 2002, Joan and I moved to Springfield, Ohio; Joan taught at Catholic Central Elementary School for the nine years we lived in that city.  We returned to Garfield Heights in 2011.

Joan’s prolife activism

A significant element in Joan’s life was her prolife activism.  Before her marriage, Joan assisted Cleveland State Students for Life and local prolife organizations.  She attended the annual March for Life in Washington, DC for many years.

After marriage, Joan not only continued, but also increased her prolife activism.  Joan volunteered to be a co-leader of Euclid Right to Life and later helped with Alpha Omega Right to Life, a Cleveland Right to Life chapter in an African-American section of metropolitan Cleveland.  Since we bought our first house in the Slavic Village neighborhood of Cleveland, we began Slavic Village Right to Life and promoted that group for at least eight years before moving to Garfield Heights where we worked with Southeast Right to Life and then Western Reserve Right to Life and Ohio Right to Life.  For several years in the 1980s and 1990s, Joan was treasurer for Cleveland Right to Life’s Political Action Committee.  Concurrent with her political activism, Joan also started Teachers for Life in metropolitan Cleveland for her fellow educators.

In the twenty-first century, Joan’s prolife activism waned because of medical problems.  However, Joan frequently donated to prolife groups and candidates.

Through all medical problems, Joan’s enduring faith

Joan suffered significant medical problems for at least four decades, some conditions and illnesses beginning even before her dating years: angina, atrial fibrillation, cancer, diabetes, Dunnigan’ s Syndrome, unstable blood pressures, glaucoma, heart failure, lipodystrophy, lipomas, and Type 2 diabetes, to name a few.  Most of these conditions required surgeries; one of Joan’s lists identified nineteen hospital stays for thirteen surgeries.

Despite the severity of her illnesses, Joan used them as a means to become closer with God, as illustrated by two consecutive journal entries dated 2 August 2003:

Right now I ask the Holy Spirit to help me pray.

Dearest Jesus,

When I think about my life so far, I think of many blessings + many sufferings.  I have been blessed with parents who, though far from perfect, gave me a wonderful Catholic upbringing.  They sacrificed so much of what they could have had for themselves, so that all seven of us kids could be educated in our faith.  I realize that God, the Father, has given this greatest of all gifts to me!  How very lucky I am!  Truly. It was there in Catholic schools where I grew to know + love You + Your Mother.

It seems that so much of life on earth is suffering.  I have felt for years that my greatest gift back to the Father would be any suffering I might have, joined with Yours, Jesus, for the reparation for sin in the word.  And yet, why me as a victim soul?  I am a great sinner.  I have so much to atone for myself.  And so, as difficult as it seems, I try to welcome suffering as a gift, as a job, possibly as my only way of ever achieving heaven myself.

 

Dear Jesus,

I am terrified of not getting to Heaven someday.  Please help me to become a better person, a better wife, mother, daughter, sister, friend.  Help me to put others first always.  Why can’t I remember to do that?  It isn’t so difficult.  I have read the stories of different saints.  It seems they all suffered in some way, some horribly.  They were all such good people.  They are such examples of goodness.  They must please You so much in Heaven.

 

Thank You for your unending love.  There is none to compare with You.

Love, Joan

Joan died on Thursday, 8 May 2025.

Respected for her goodness and piety

Joan’s family and friends contributed many anecdotes and comments about how good she was and how deep was her piety.  Many know how deeply Joan prayed for others.  For example, Joan told me how she offered herself to God so that her father would not get cancer; his test result was negative.  Similarly, Joan prayed for a distant relative, a little boy with brain cancer; he is now doing well.  She herself benefited from her deep prayer when a fibroid tumor “disappeared”, an event which doctors could not explain.

Contributions from family and friends are listed in alphabetical order by the writer’s first name in two separate categories.

Comments from Joan’s friends

Connie Hay, who taught with Joan at Catholic Central Elementary School in Springfield, Ohio, cited Joan’s prayers for another teacher as a factor in helping the woman overcome serious medical problems:

I’m sure Joan was instrumental in saving the life of my friend, Mary Ellen, who was hospitalized for over 17 weeks from November, 2007 to April, 2008.  Complications from routine hernia surgery caused liver failure, kidney failure, heart problems, lung problems, and a variety of infections including sepsis.  At times she was completely unresponsive and barely conscious.  Joan had her class praying for Mary Ellen daily for 17 weeks.  Miraculously, Mary Ellen recovered and enjoyed 3 more years of life.  I know Joan’s prayers saved Mary Ellen’s life.

Faith Conroy, a friend whom Joan knew from two religious venues, remarked that she was impressed that Joan would diligently fulfill her religious duties even though she had to use a walker or rollator to enter the buildings.  For years (until we moved to Springfield), Joan had volunteered to an hour’s adoration every week at the Eucharistic Adoration Chapel in St. Martin of Tours Church in Maple Heights, Ohio.  Both before and after the move to Springfield, Joan would attend Mass in Marymount Hospital’s chapel with hospital volunteers and others.

Jenny Freeman, another fellow teacher who taught with Joan at Catholic Central Elementary School in Springfield, Ohio, was gracious enough to provide an elaborate account of Joan’s active prayer life for her and her family.  Her comments mirror the reflections of many other fellow teachers throughout Joan’s teaching career:

          As we learned more about each other’s family, we realized that we were both strong “mama bears”.  We shared about our joys and concerns.  We prayed for each other’s families.  During the months my mom was in hospice and after her passing, Joan prayed!  She covered me in prayer.  She and her class of third graders prayed for my mom and my family.  When I returned to school days after my mom’s funeral, there were loving handmade cards from those wonderful students on my desk.  Joan made a beautiful difference in the lives of others.

She was a prayer warrior!  She prayed when my ten months old great-nephew, Cameron, was in the hospital isolation because he needed a bone marrow transplant.  She prayed as he was diagnosed, as he waited for a donor, during the operations, and as we waited for one hundred days for test results assuring successful immunity.  He is now a [high school] graduate and attending a community college in his hometown.  I believe that her faithful prayers were answered!

Her faithful prayers for my niece were answered, as well.  My niece, Sarah, was involved in a fatal car accident several years ago.  She was in critical condition with internal injuries and several broken bones in her legs, pelvis, and back.  As soon as I found out about Sarah’s accident, I asked Joan to pray for Sarah.  She faithfully prayed each day.  I am so grateful for Joan’s faithful prayers. Sarah is now a happily married mom with two beautiful young children.

 

Ray Twardy, a mutual friend, summarized his years-long knowledge of Joan with these summary statements after a long list of reminiscences: “I miss Joan very much.  You meet so many people in your lifetime.  Not every one of them has an impact on you.  I can truly say that I am a better man for having had Joan in my life”.

Even one of Joan’s many priest friends recognized her piety, or, as in the following comment, how her piety had good effects on others.  For example, Fr. Tom Haren, whom we knew from St. Monica’s Church in Garfield Heights and from his activism for the prolife movement, wrote that “Unfortunately, I do not know much information about Joan’s life […].  I can tell that she was a wonderful role model for you”.

Comments from Joan’s family

Joan’s sister-in-law, Carolyn Morris, wrote an extensive summary of her relationship with her over several decades.  The following excerpts are especially noteworthy:

Joan inspired us by her Eucharistic Adoration and her devotion to St. Theresa.  She was an Adorer for the longest time.  You could count on her to pray for you and your intentions whenever she was asked.  Her faith was beautiful and strong and holy.

 

For all the years which I have known Joan, she has touched me so much with her wonderful kindness, generosity, sense of humor, high intelligence, warmth, humility, and long suffering due to her illnesses.  I have never met anyone like her who had to endure so much, and she did it so bravely and with a holiness I wish I had.  We miss her so much, but our loving God is using her to help all of us get to Heaven.

Joan’s cousin from the Buffalo area, Kathy Bates, offered these comments:

My thoughts on Joan: always so thoughtful, so generous with cards (prayer cards always included).  I remember how often when things were tough she would “offer it up”.  I’m doing that now because of her.  How deeply moved I was, when dealing with health issues of her own, she traveled here both times when my brothers passed away.  She offered support when it was most needed.  I will be forever grateful to her for the sacrifices she made to be with us.  And above all, I just know how good it felt to be in her presence.  Miss her so.

Joan’s sister, Mitzi Rose, had much to say about Joan’s life.  Mitzi summarized Joan’s relationships with her parents and siblings as exemplary.  “Joan was someone anyone could always rely on”, Mitzi affirms.  She expected people to do their best, yet Joan “was not bossy with her siblings; she persuaded them” instead.  For that reason, the Morris siblings did not want to disappoint Joan in whatever they did.  Moreover, Joan was a peacemaker; Mitzi said, “I can’t recall ever having an argument with Joan”.

Mitzi said that Joan always prayed, beginning with their days at Parmadale, and that she did “extra” religious practices; for example, she went to Confession more regularly than the other children in the orphanage.

Mitzi’s final remarks were “She was my best friend from the cradle to the grave.  I miss her so much”.

Prayer to the saintly woman Joan Koloze

In the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

 

Saintly woman Joan,

lover of life,

loving daughter,

beloved sibling,

loving wife,

joyous mother and grandmother,

steadfast prolife activist,

devout teacher of God’s little ones,

caretaker of God’s little creatures,

victim soul

who offered her sufferings to God

for the benefit of others,

ask God to smile kindly on me

in my suffering, my grief, my pain

and teach me to love

myself as a child of God,

my family and neighbors

as brothers and sisters in Christ,

and all those whom God created

as greatly as

your heart

loved everybody.

Amen.

 

[1] Instead of following standard English phonetic rules, such as the one regarding not pronouncing a terminal vowel “e”, the surname is pronounced “Ko-low-zee”, accent on the penultimate syllable.  This pronunciation retains some integrity to the original Polish surname Kołodziej, whose pronunciation includes a terminal vowel sound.

[2] John A. Hardon, Modern Catholic Dictionary, Eternal Life, Bardstown, Kentucky, 1980, reprinted 2008.