Mary passes over from the Mind and Heart of God in eternity to earthly life on December 13, AD 1940 on a farm in Harlan, Iowa. She is the daughter of Edwin and Lorena Buman. Mary has one brother, Edwin, and two sisters Rita Ann (deceased) and Theresa. She is grateful for being the child of farmers and loves being outside working on all aspects of raising crops and raising cattle. While she is a pianist and is an organist at her parish Church, she is also the first girl in the township to join the boys’ 4-H. Girls at that time in 4-H only work on and show at 4-H fairs such things as culinary skills, clothing and home furnishing projects—all of which Mary participates in with great enthusiasm. But, she also wants to show her Angus cattle at the county fair, but this requires that she be in the boys’ 4-H. So she applies on the basis of her cattle rearing experience and is accepted as a member.
Mary went to Tennant Public Schools in Tennant, Iowa, from which she graduated as the valedictorian of her class in 1958. She then attended St. Mary’s College in Notre Dame, Indiana. In her junior year she studied abroad at the University of Vienna. She received a BS degree in mathematics from St. Mary’s in 1962 and then attended graduate school at the University of Notre Dame and there earned a Master of Arts in Teaching Degree in mathematics. Mary taught high school in Omaha, Nebraska, for a time, after which she entered graduate school at Boston College to pursue a doctorate in Counseling Psychology. She received her PhD from Boston College in 1972.
After teaching for a while at St. Mary’s College in Indiana, Mary decides to forego a career in academia in order to be a full time homemaker and to home school most of her children. At the age 63 Mary returns to school as a student and after two years receives her RN in nursing from Massasoit College in 2005. She employs this latter degree exclusively in volunteer work in Haiti and locally. She is also for many years a Eucharistic Minster at three hospitals.
Mary met her husband of fifty-three years, Rev. Emmanuel Charles McCarthy, first during graduate school at Notre Dame and later at Boston College while she was in her PhD program and he was attending Boston College Law School. They were married on June 18, 1966 in Portsmouth, Iowa, and are the parents of thirteen children: Kristin, Michelle, Charles, Mary, Thomas, Bernadette, Tzipora, Erin, Joy, Timothy, Kateri, Teresia Benedicta and Ananda (deceased). They are also the grandparents of twenty-two grandchildren: Josiah, Isaiah, Elijah, Sophia, Tobiah, and Susannah Stessman, Mary Margaret, Jack, Paddy, Jimmy, Julia and Michael Reidy, Lazarus and Rose Lillian McCarthy, Sarah and Lily Tepe, Agnus Cai, Makayla and William McCarthy, Miriam and Lucia Einhorn. They have been gifted with a wonderful daughter-in-law, Lindsay McSharry, and blessed with seven fine sons-in-law: Jim Stessman, Sean Reidy, Doug Tepe, Shuang Cai, Eli McCarthy, Will Einhorn, and Nitin Mahadeo.
On November 24, AD 2019, the Feast of Christ the King, Mary passed over from her earthly existence to her place in eternity at the heavenly Messianic Banquet of the Lamb.
Mary’s Funeral Service was prayed in the Byzantine Catholic Tradition at Saint Edith Stein Catholic Parish Church in Brockton, MA, USA on November 29, AD 2019.