Day 7 - Sr. M. Johnilda Mannhard, Donaldson, Indiana

We did it again. This time it wasn’t Daylight Savings Time, it was a time zone change. When we arrived Sr. Johnilda asked what took us so long, we didn’t think much of it until we realized all their clocks were an hour later than ours. Duh. We shouldn’t have a problem with time again until the last week, somewhere around Louisiana or Texas.


A little history: Joe met Sr. Johnilda at Angel Guardian Orphanage while he was in grade school. A bond developed and he continued to keep in touch with her, through High School, College and beyond. We’ve been to the Mother House several times over the years. Joe’s first visit to the Mother House was when he was in the AGO grade school band and they took a field trip there to play a concert.

We spent the night at Lindenwood, a retreat area that is part of the Ancilla Domini Convent center. Sr. Johnilda’s order is the Poor Handmaids of Jesus Christ (Ancilla Domini in Latin), and she has been a nun for 73 years. She will celebrate her 93rd birthday on May 24 this year. She is an incredible lady.

We also ran into Sr. Kenneth who spent a couple of years in Ames Iowa at our home parrish. She is back at the Mother House now. And we had a brief visit with Sr. Leandra, who was Percy Thompson’s cottage mother (we’ll visit Percy later in this trip). And Sr. Leandra was also known to Clare Wichman, who we will visit tomorrow.