Sister Esther Diaz is truly one of a kind.

Her 108th birthday was Aug. 21 and she is the oldest among the nearly 20,000 members of the Daughters of Charity religious order worldwide.

Her fellow residents and the staff at Seton Residence on New Harmony Road celebrated the milestone with cake and ice cream.

Diaz was born in Brooklyn, N.Y., and she joined the Daughters of Charity in 1918.

From 1925-27, she worked at an orphanage in Poyang, China, before political unrest forced her and her fellow sisters to leave the country.

She also worked as the sister in charge at a Daughters of Charity residence in Natchez.

She spent the majority of her career teaching at Catholic schools in San Francisco, New Orleans, Puerto Rico and Chicago. She also served in various roles at the religious order’s administrative offices in Evansville and at different Daughters of Charity facilities around the U.S.

She now lives at Seton Residence, a retirement facility for Daughters of Charity. Among Diaz’s 59 fellow residents are several sisters who are also her former students.

One of them is Sister Marion Purpura, who took a secretarial course from Diaz at a Chicago high school.

Purpura said Diaz was a beloved teacher who had a motherly attitude toward her students.

“All the girls were crazy about her,” Purpura recalled.

Age has slowed Diaz considerably, and on a recent visit, she wasn’t much up to talking, but staffers and other sisters were eager to share stories.

While she still was able, the sisters recalled, Diaz was the one who always was baking cookies and muffins — potato chip cookies were one of her specialties — to share with staff, residents and visitors. Even today, one staffer said, Diaz wants to share her meals with others to make sure everyone has enough to eat.

On one memorable occasion years ago, Diaz even shared her hospitality with government agents, recalled Sister Teresita Heenan.

Heenan is now Seton Residence’s assistant activities director, but in 1970 Heenan and Diaz lived at a Daughters of Charity residence in Natchez.

One day, Heenan recalled, FBI agents came to the sisters’ door seeking information. They had heard there was some illegal gambling in town, and they were talking to local residents to find out the facts. Did the sisters know anything that might help the investigation?

Diaz, who was the sister in charge of the residence, told the agents she didn’t know anything about the gambling, but how about coming inside for a visit?

“They really had a good time. They were sitting around having tea and cookies with the sisters,” Heenan recalled with a laugh.

In 1975, Diaz moved to Evansville for “semi-retirement.” She lived at the Mater Dei Provincial House, a residence facility for Daughters of Charity sisters who work at various Evansville-area jobs.

At Mater Dei, Diaz baked bran muffins and worked as a receptionist, among her other jobs.

“She was very friendly and very welcoming to everybody,” said Sister Catherine Hoppe, who lived at Mater Dei with Diaz.

Diaz made sure she was always at the reception desk to greet incoming residents and visitors no matter what time they arrived, Hoppe recalled.

“She would stay up to all hours to greet people.”