The Healing Journey

April 7, 2026

Msgr. Walter Orlowski loved to walk near the pond at St. Matthew Church, where he was pastor for 26 years. He delighted in nature and was a lifelong gardener. During his last year, he planned to plant more flowers and vegetables, despite his debilitating illness, so it was fitting that his sister, Joan Joyce and her late husband Bill decided to honor him with a memorial garden near the pond he loved.

“It was natural to honor him like this, and it’s a way of experiencing closure to what was a rather quick onset of illness and hospitalizations in the six months before he died December 21, 2020,” she said. Monsignor often sent flowers to people, whether to celebrate an occasion or to show his compassion during times of illness and loss.

“He never forgot those who went before him, visiting the cemeteries and planting or leaving flowers there,” she said. Joyce recalled their childhood and the challenges that she, he and their younger sister Carol faced with the death of their father.

“We grew up close as children, and he was a typical, very annoying older brother who was always trying to get me into trouble for something or other,” she recalls. “We had a wonderful childhood and played outside in the neighborhood.”

When their father died in 1968, she was 12, Monsignor was 13, and Carol was only 6. “It rocked our world and put a tremendous burden on him, to pick up that caregiver role,” Joyce said. “My dad didn’t have any life insurance, and my mother, who was a registered nurse, had to go back to work full-time. I still remember her telling my brother and me, ‘You kids need to grow up fast,’ and we did. I was doing the family cooking and ironing….My sister was very close to our father, so her life was significantly impacted by his death.”

Monsignor took special care of his mother, who lived 49 more years after her husband died. “My mother was blessed in a special way because my brother took the most incredible care of her,” Joyce said. “He took her on all kinds of trips. They were both huge baseball fans, and I couldn’t tell you how many stadiums they went to across the country. Both of them were big Mets fans. They never gave up on them, no matter how many games they lost, and he even took her to spring training in Port St. Lucie, Florida. Her life would have been so much different without him because he did so much for her.”

She believes the garden is a special tribute to a priest who was beloved by not only by his family, but also by his parish family and countless others. Today is Monsignor’s birthday.
©J Pisani

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