Sue Cardwell by Doug Cardwell
- admin197673
- Jun 20
- 8 min read
Updated: Jul 9
My mother Sue Cardwell served in Congo with my father Walter from 1945 to 1957. They accepted the call to missionary service in 1942, leaving his church in Mississippi to begin extensive training for the life and the work that awaited them in the middle of the rainforest in central Africa. Finally ready, they took the first available passage across the Atlantic after VJ Day, taking my sister (age 2) and me (age 5) on a 10-week journey that landed us in Bolenge, the station that would be our home for 10 of the next 12 years—and where I had the good fortune to grow up.
Having studied French as part of their preparation, my parents spent most of every day with a local Congolese who would be their tutor until they mastered Lonkundo, the local language in which they would both have to work every day. As their fluency increased, they took on more and more tasks and were soon involved full time—my father as an evangelist and my mother as a teacher in the station's high school.
Instruction was in French as she taught grammar and composition and math, and whatever else was needed. She soon became known in the community as a demanding and very effective teacher. It was no surprise, but very touching, that when she returned for a brief visit over 30 years after she had had to give up the work she loved, students who heard on the grapevine of her presence walked many miles to greet her and recount how hard she had made them work and how, when the time came for them to take state examinations for employment, they found easy what their fellow candidates struggled with. Nothing they could have said could have pleased her more, for teaching was a much-loved vocation. She had loved school (graduating college at 19) and was very conscious of how it opened doors normally closed to women in her time.
Such was the legacy she left, and it was in honor of that legacy and in memory of her dedication to the power of education to transform lives that our family set up her Named Fund to provide scholarships for women, who, preferably, were preparing to become teachers. Her recent death at 104 has left us all the more determined to build on her legacy and continue educating Congolese youth in her name.
Follow-up questions by Mary Sanichas, answered by Doug Caldwell
Where did your mother grow up? What circumstances?
She grew up mostly in Gulfport, Mississippi, where her father settled after growing up in Kentucky. She spent part of her childhood back at his family home. As a baby she survived the Spanish flu that killed millions.
She had a fraternal twin sister, two younger brothers and a baby sister, all of whom went to college and one of whom became a famous thoracic surgeon. The others were all teachers, as was her father until he went into business for himself.
She was a self-described tomboy who preferred to climb trees and ride horses rather than cooking and sewing and other "ladylike" activities; she was frequently scolded by her grandmother for it. That is probably why she broke so many barriers over her lifetime. At the same time she excelled in school and skipped some years. Since their father believed that everyone should go to college, and there was none in town, he took them to Mississippi Women's College and settled them in the dorm and chose their classes.
Her main subjects were math and modern languages—fortunately including French. At graduation she returned home to work in her father's office. When my father came to town to apply as pastor of her church, she went with her father to meet him at the train. It was love at first sight, and she told her sister that if he got the job, they would marry. They did!
Where did your parents study French?
Since I was four at the time, I don't remember everything, but I know they spent several months in Montreal and at the Kennedy School for Missions in Hartford, Connecticut.
I'm thinking of my own mother, born on a South Carolina farm. Determined to get away, she worked her way through nursing school in North Carolina, then signed up for WW2 and was on the front in tent hospitals through North Africa and Italy. What a different adventure your mother pursued! Was she independent? Rebellious?
Yes, and Yes, though she was very rational and thus careful with boundaries. She was a genuine southern magnolia blossom, with iron petals.
What was her impression of the Congo?
Her calling was very strong—think about taking two preschoolers to a place with very primitive medical conditions and where almost everyone was of a different culture, a different language, with different customs.
She found it exotic, fascinating and very much in need of lifting up educationally and economically. She loved her job. She loved the people she worked with.
Isn't Lonkundo a more complicated language?
Probably no language is more difficult than English, but for English speakers it is a very complicated language, with an extensive use of prefixes and infixes for person, number and tense, including some tenses English doesn't have.
Did you grow up speaking mainly Lonkundo?
Mother made sure some local kids came around to play with me. Since they spoke only Lonkundo, I quickly learned to speak like a native speaker. I guess technically, I am a native speaker.
When I finished 6th grade at home (the Calvert system), I was 9 years old, so I was sent to Mbandaka (daily bus) to school with the Belgian kids. There I learned French by immersion. And of course that had its effect on my eventual choice of career as a French professor.
Can you tell me more about the Calvert system? If that was homeschooling, what did that look like?
The kit contained texts and workbooks along with a detailed syllabus with daily assignments. We started on the trip and then worked intensively when we arrived, but soon we went to a quick survey each day of work to be done before she left to teach her classes and a few minutes of reviewing my work when she got home.
Was it a small village?
Bolenge was a small village 6 miles from Mbandaka, and the largest mission station for the Disciples of Christ [a Protestant religion known for its commitment to social justice]. The other stations had elementary schools, and those picked out as particularly promising were sent to the secondary schools at Bolenge. Mother taught at the one for general studies, and another trained teachers.
In his second term my father started a school for preachers. He had discovered in his trips to the back country to supervise Congolese pastors that they were sometimes illiterate, often didn't own a Bible and thus quoted Scripture from memory.
Were there challenges with illnesses? How did your mother manage with childbirth?
The hospital for Europeans was run by the Catholic mission. Since the pain of giving birth was considered a punishment from God for Eve's sin, pain relief could only be after the birth. She had two children in those conditions. The second left her with serious complications and also infected her with the illness that would force her to return permanently to the States.
Was there a generator for electricity? What kind of house did you live in? How rudimentary?
In our first term, there was no electricity, so we used kerosene lamps. In our second term there was a station generator that ran 6–10 pm. Most of the time.
At what age were you sent away for schooling?
I first went away to school, at the most distant station, when I was 11. That was only for a year. At 14 I went to Central School for the last two and a half years of high school.
Why did they leave in 1957? How old were you?
Mother went home on emergency leave during the spring term of my senior year. Dad stayed to finish his teaching year while I finished high school. We then packed up and returned to the States for good. I was 17.
How did you adapt to life in the States? Had you ever been there? How did your mother adapt?
I had spent only two furloughs in the States since I was five, so I knew little about life there. I'm not sure I ever learned. Since I had always been pretty independent, it didn't bother me. I was serious about my studies and got very involved in athletics, and that was enough.
My mother had a much harder time, since she was bedridden for years with the illness that sent her away from her chosen life. When she got better she went back to school, got her masters (usually the only woman in her classes) and eventually (at the age of 60) got her PhD and became the first woman faculty member at the Disciples of Christ seminary in Indianapolis.
I'd like to hear more about her personality. Was your mother unusual as a parent?
Unusual was her will and determination show up in her return to studies while she was still recovering from her illness. She was rational, foresightful and thoughtful of those around her.
She always wanted to do right by her children. Two examples are getting the cook to make me a birthday cake when we got to an inn one afternoon and were leaving the next morning, and bringing simple supplies from the States for my sister and me to make decorations for a Christmas tree on the trip.
You followed in your mother's footsteps as a French professor?
Mother taught French along with other subjects in Congo, but that was not her main one. Teaching in American colleges is different, so I never taught anything else. But certainly I was influenced by the fact that both my parents taught.
One more question: How do you see your mother's influence in yourself? You said she was "rational" twice. Also foresightful and thoughtful. Mindful of boundaries while at the same time rebellious and independent.
Doug, I would describe you as very full of heart but extremely measured, rational and above all thorough and dependable. Am I describing your mother as well?!
Yes, I think those adjectives apply. She could be tough-minded and iron-willed, but always expressed with a coating of honey in the old-time Southern manner. Yes, I learned a lot from her, but I'm not sure about the honey.
56% of the 9,658 students at Université Protestante au Congo were women in 2024
If you would like to support scholarships for women at UPC, consider donating to one of Education Congo's named funds designated for women:
Sue Cardwell Fund—designated for women students from Bolenge Province or Equateur Province who are preparing for careers in teaching
Jain-Goel Fund—designated for women medical school students at UPC
Sanichas IT Fund—designated for women computer science students at UPC
Sanichas Law Fund—designated for women law school students at UPC
Jack & Linda Spencer Fund—designated for women medical school students at UPC
To donate to a named fund, click the donate button above, choose "Named funds" to go to our secure donation site, then scroll to choose your preferred named fund.
To donate by check, write the name of the fund on the memo line of the check and mail to Education Congo, PO Box 29, Lamar, CO 81052 USA.
If you are taking distributions from your IRA, you might consider making a direct donation from your account to Education Congo. The distribution amount that is paid directly to Education Congo would not be taxable to you and could save you some income tax dollars. Please talk to your financial and/or tax advisors on how to best make this kind of donation. (If you go this route, be sure to notify us with details.)
