LEWISTON – Helena Sarah McCarthy died Wednesday, July 22, at the Marshwood Center in Lewiston, where she had been a patient for several years.

She was born in Bangor to John and Elizabeth Joy Crowley. She attended St. John’s School, and graduated from Bangor High School and Husson College. She worked as a secretary at the Androscoggin Mill in Lewiston for a few years and then as a cashier at the Lewiston Gas Light Co. for 25 years.

She was married to James McCarthy and was his loving wife until his death in 1965. She then moved to Portland, where she provided care to her father-in-law and was an accountant with the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland.

From 1969 until her retirement, she assisted Monsignor Raymond F. Bégin in his pastoral ministry at Holy Martyrs Parish in Falmouth, Holy Family Parish in Lewiston, Holy Family Parish in Lisbon Falls, and St. Gregory’s Parish in Gray.

She was a very warm woman who welcomed all callers at the rectories and made them feel at home. During her stay in Falmouth, she babysat as many as 20 children while their parents attended Mass. In each parish, she kept a careful account of the funds received and disbursed and gave detailed reports to the financial committees and the respective parishioners.

She is survived by three nieces, Tizz E.H. Crowley, and her husband, Timothy Dotts, Kathleen Bourgault, and her husband, Keith and Corinne Saindon, and her husband, René; six grandnephews and grandnieces; and one great-grandniece.