Lennox Island elder 'elated' after travelling to Rome, hearing Pope's apology

Marlene Thomas had a front-row seat to hear Pope Francis make his historic apology to Canada's Indigenous people earlier this month, but her journey included a sudden and unexpected stay in hospital in Rome — and it nearly kept her away from the long-awaited event.

"I was elated," said Thomas, 67, at home again on Lennox Island First Nation this week. "I wouldn't have got any other opportunity. I figured that was my time, my only time that I could get to see him and be in the same room."

On April 1, Pope Francis met personally with a delegation of First Nations people, Métis and Inuit at the Vatican and said he's sorry for the decades of abuse and maltreatment of Indigenous people within Canada's notorious residential school system. 

The Roman Catholic Church was one of the main Christian denominations that ran the schools on the behalf of the federal government, and the last to issue a formal apology like this. 

Thomas shared the front row of the 52-minute papal audience with former national chief of the Assembly of First Nations, Phil Fontaine, among other elders. She wore traditional Mi'kmaq clothing for the occasion.

She believes she was asked to join the delegation to Rome because of her decades of advocacy on behalf of residential school survivors. 

Thomas attended the Shubenacadie Indian Residential School in Nova Scotia from 1965 until its closing in 1967. Her mother, Mary Sapier, had also attended the school.

"In the beginning, when I first come home, I didn't want to talk about it, and nor did my mother," Thomas told CBC News this week. "Probably on my healing journey for about 30 years now…

"But I think now we can educate people. I think that's so important. Because that's part of what I've been doing. I've been going in the schools. I've been talking about it whenever I can."

An attack of pancreatitis nearly caused Thomas to miss the pope's apology, though. Two days before the event, she was admitted to hospital in Rome.

Granddaughter Mackenzie Thomas, 21, had come along as her support person. 

"After Nana was in the hospital … I didn't get too much sleep," says the younger Thomas. She calmed down as her grandmother's condition stabilized, however.

"Friday came around, she messaged me and said, 'Can you get me out of here?' So that's my Nana. I'm going to pick her up obviously," said Thomas. "We made it just in time on the bus."

Younger people clustered at the back of the ornate chamber as the pope read from the English text of his prepared statement. Mackenzie Thomas says she found it hard to hear his voice.