A VERY SPECIAL ZOOM MEETING!
IN MY OWN WORDS:
As a followup to my post on the 45th anniversary of the four women who were martyred in El Salvador on December 2, 1980, I (Anne) had the idea of remembering this anniversary by hosting a Zoom session on December 2, 2025, in which we might pray together in honor of the four women.
The session was with Cynthia and Sofia, two women whom I have come to know and love over the last 12 years.
These women, Cynthia who now lives in her home state of Michigan and Sofia, now living in Queens, New York City, had closely interacted with one or all four of the women who had been murdered in El Salvador on that fateful day.
The Four Martyred Women L-R:
Ita Ford, Maura Clarke, Dorothy Kazel, Jean Donovan.
What an amazing Zoom session this was with the three of us, Cynthia, Sofia, and I—meeting face-to-face to talk about Ita, Maura, Dorothy, and Jean for the first time!
Cynthia (Cyndy), signing in from Michigan, told of her college experience with Jean Donovan, the lay woman of the foursome, in their college junior-year-abroad program, in which they both participated in Ireland in 1973: Cynthia hailing from Michigan and Jean from Connecticut.
Cynthia told us how nice Jean was and about the good times they had shared together on group excursions.
Shortly into the semester, Cyndy explained, she had drifted away from the Americans as she became more involved with another group of students, especially with one student in particular, an Irish lad from County Cork whose name was Sean. They began hanging out together. And they are still hanging out, preparing to celebrate their fiftieth wedding anniversary next year!
Cynthia told us about seeing, in early December 1980, seven years after her college experience with Jean, the shocking news of the murder of four churchwomen on a ticker tape in the newsroom where she was working as a reporter.
She described to us the startling moment when, on the next morning, she opened the local Michigan newspaper and “saw Jean’s face in the story about the murders.”
It was obvious to us that for Cynthia, that shock still stings!
Sofia, signing in from New York City, told us about her experience as a 20-year old teacher in a school with very young children in El Salvador in 1980. She had interacted with Jean, Dorothy, Ita, and Maura whenever they visited her school to be with the children. Sofia told us how much the four of them had loved the children and how kind, caring, and helpful they were to the people of Salvador—actions, she said, that were unusual at that time.
Sofia also shared with us her own harrowing experience with the Salvadoran military death squads, when, as she said, “I got the white hand on my door.”
She explained that if a splash of white paint were placed on the doorframe of your home, it meant: YOU WERE NEXT!!
“NEXT” meant: Next to be killed. This was solely because she was a teacher of children in Salvador. Having only a few hours to exit the country, she grabbed her little brother and fled to the U.S.
Sofia can hardly speak about those four holy women without tearing up.
I, Anne, on the other hand, never knew Jean Donovan nor the three other women. But I do know the town of Westport, CT, which was Jean’s childhood home.
Westport is the neighboring town to Weston where I was living with my husband and three children—and where I am still involved with the Church of St. Francis of Assisi.
We lived there from 1978 to 1995 and, at that time, Weston was considered Westport’s sister town: for example, we had the same rates as Westport residents for town parking at its Compo beach and for Longshore, its country club.
Weston, though considered a suburb of New York City, was (and still is) more like a country town with all of its essentials concentrated in one area called Weston Center. It has as its locus a market and a few commercial businesses, with public services, churches, and its school system in the nearby surrounding area.
Therefore, most of our local family activities occurred in Westport: theater, outdoor concerts, restaurants, beach, clothing and gift shopping, healthcare, and children’s theater camps.
A note about one of those theater camps: at times, the children had the opportunity to perform their plays at the well-known Westport Country Playhouse.
Our youngest son David performed there in “Music Man” and “Anything Goes” at around the age of ten, “walking the boards” (as they say) as did the theatrical greats, especially the likes of Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward who were Westport residents with close ties to the Playhouse.
In our Zoom meeting, Cynthia mentioned that while in Ireland, Jean Donovan had impressed her when she spoke about horseback riding, her favorite sport, with Paul Newman’s daughter Nell. This indicated to Cynthia the level of wealth Jean had enjoyed, making it all the more amazing that she gave it all up for Salvador.
My family was not at the level of Jean’s, but, truth be told, we and our neighbors in Weston and Westport, were usually on the lookout for spotting Paul Newman whenever we were in downtown Westport.
Below is an excerpt from a 2016 article about Jean in the local Westport publication “06880” produced by Dan Woog who was Jean’s classmate at Staples High School. Dan and Jean graduated together in1971.
Photo courtesy of Jean’s parents,
Ray and Patricia Donovan
The 1969 photo shows Jean Donovan on her horse Apple, at Fiddle Horse Farm….
It’s the 36th anniversary of the beating, rape and murder of 4 lay missionaries, by Salvadoran military men. Donovan — a 1971 Staples High School graduate — was one of those women. Growing up in Westport, there was little evidence she’d become an internationally known martyr….
She was introduced to horseback riding when she was young, and spent some of her teenage years riding and working at Fiddle Horse Farm. It was one of several working horse farms in Westport.
—by Dan Woog, 2016
The link in the article above leads to another Staples H.S. graduate with connections to Jean and Salvador.
Actress Cynthia Gibb, known for Fame and Gypsy, lives in Westport now and grew up there as well. In the 1986 Oliver Stone film “Salvador”, she was cast in the role of Jean Donovan. She was surprised to learn that Jean, like herself, hailed from Westport and had also graduated from Staples H.S., Jean in 1971 and Cynthhia in 1981.
That connection, and her research for her role as Jean, sent Gibbs on a whirlwind of sleuthing about Jean’s life and particularly about the U.S. involvement and support of the military in El Salvador at the time of the civil war that was at the heart of the murders of the four women.
“That film changed my life,” Gibb says. “I’d never been politically active before.”
Some photos of the town of Westport, CT
Westport Country Playhouse—plays happening there were often on their way to Broadway in New York City
Compo Beach facing Long Island Sound
Main Street—Downtown Westport in the 1960s when Jean Donovan would have lived in the town.
Main Street—Downtown Westport Today
Assumption Catholic Church, Westport Jean attended its elementary school.
Staples High School campus in the 1970s. (Photo/Fred Cantor)
Jean graduated from Staples in 1971.
Aerial view of Staples High School, 1959. Open areas between buildings meant exposure to weather.
Arial view: Staples High School Today. Buildings are connected and closed in for better weather protection.
So, I suppose one could say that Jean Donovan was, in a way, my neighbor.
My knowledge of Jean’s hometown certainly helped as I began my sleuthing efforts to learn more about this ordinary local young girl who had become quite an extraordinary missionary in Salvador.
A phone call to Staples High school, the assistance of the Westport Historical Society and the Westport Public Library, as well as a conversation with a nun at St. Luke’s Catholic Church (where Jean and her family had been parishioners), revealed much information.
Films and books filled in the rest.
Odd Encounters:
I then encountered Sofia and Cyndy quite accidentally—or perhaps these were not accidents, but rather what I have called “Holy Spirit moments!”
Sofia:
I found Sofia in 2013 when her daughter, who was a student in the high school religion class I was teaching, raised her hand as I was relating the murderous El Salvador story, and informed me that “my mother knew those four women when she lived in El Salvador.”
Sofia came to our high school in 2013 and told her story for the first time in a mini-theater filled with teen students and their teachers, many of whom shed tears with her as she related her experience.
In the Zoom session this month, Sofia shared that she loved ”the beautiful letters,” which my students had written to her thanking her for visiting them. She still has their letters.
She also told us about how proud her daughter Bianca was after her talk at our school. Paraphrasing what Sofia told us, she said that “when we arrived home, Bianca said to me: ‘I am always proud of you mom, but today I am especially proud of you for being so brave.’”
Cynthia:
I found Cynthia “accidentally” on Facebook while sleuthing for information on University College Cork in Ireland, the place of Jean’s college junior-year-abroad experience. While there, Jean had met the priest, Fr. Michael Crowley, who raised her interest in missionary work. In the documentary about Jean, Roses in December, one of her cousins states: “the road to Salvador began in Ireland.”
I contacted Cyndy and we shared stories about Jean and our own experiences in Ireland.
Cynthia also made a visit to our school—in 2023. Because of distance, we held a Zoom session in the same mini-theater where Sofia’s talk had occurred 10 years earlier—with a new student body.
The girls all loved Cynthia and were enthralled with what she had to tell them about Jean when she was just a few years older than they were.
In Conclusion:
My unusual relationship to this story!
This story—of Jean; the three sisters, Ita, Maura, and Dorothy; the two women, Sofia and Cynthia, who knew them; and also Jean’s classmate Dan Woog—is a story that seems to follow me around!
It has been periodically returning to me over these last 12 years, and each time, it brings with it a completely new situation and certainly new surprises!
Note: Stories and excerpt are included with permission.
IN YOUR OWN WORDS:
Previous Post: “Advent Reflection With a Twist”
Written by Anne Andersson, December 5, 2025
—”Thank you for the Advent reflection, Anne. I thought of Stonehenge, built in part at least to confirm the very moment that the sun had reached its’ nadir in the skies of the Northern hemisphere. A cause for celebration the echoes of which we can still hear in our Christmas celebration if we listen carefully. The fullness of Faith has unfolded gradually through the millennia- and continues to do so. Blessed Advent to the C-WED community. Peace.” —Jim
—”Inspired book selection, Anne. Thank you.” —Maryanne
A C:WED WISH:
Enjoy a blessed Advent!
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