Nancy Vandenbergh-Kremer, Chicago, IL: “Friendship and love”

This Rooted for Tomorrow story was contributed by Nancy Vandenbergh-Kremer, Chicago, IL, for the 175th anniversary of the Sisters of Providence arriving in Indiana.

My story goes back to my infancy, when as a newborn my grandmother (then living in Immaculate Conception Parish in Chicago) brought Sisters Ann Michael ( IC grammar school principal), Mary Elise Angermeir, Mary Loretta Henry, Sadie Marie Burns, and Emily Marie Bryant to visit her new granddaughter!

My mother was always quick to announce that the Sisters and my grandmother came often by surprise to our hot, second floor apartment, checking in as she was busy with new mother chores. Staying through lunch, as it was the Summer of 1955, and they had returned from St Mary’s to begin work on their classrooms for the upcoming school year.

Later in 1969 I would enroll at Mother Guerin High School and meet and become friends with other great SPs: Sisters Marie Cyril, Kay Kelly, Florence Fertig, Rosemary Mackey and Jean Margaret Kaindle as well many other Sisters who taught in the school and lived at the convent.

What a great surprise as I entered SMWC the Fall of 1973 to discover the SPs my dad had corresponded with thru the years were now retired from their classrooms and were living at the Woods! We had many memories and reimeniscent stories of the early days at IC and the Vandenbergh home visits.

After graduating from the College alumnae I knew entered the Sisters: Dawn Tomaszewski, Lisa Stallings, MaryAnn De Fazio, Pam Pauloski, and Gwen O’Malley from the College and Deb Campbell from high school days.,

Again I would meet the SPs when I married my husband Charles Kremer ( a graduate of IC grammar school) and we invited our mutual SP friends to our wedding, Sisters Hermandine Besner, Ruth Eileen Dwyer, Betty Paul, Marie Brendan Harvey, Georgianna Terstegge, and Marie Clarice Toomey. A wonderful time shared by 3 families the Vandeberghs, the Kremers and the SPs.

As I volunteered and offered my talents to the IC Parish, I met even more SPs in our grammar school in the 1980-90s: Sisters Joan Mary Schaffer, Joseph Clare Mc Carthy, Ann Xavier, Jean Arkenberg, Donna O’Neill, Patty Gist, Ann Renee Maxwell, Mary Julia and Mary Pat Cummings.

Through the years I have met over 200 Sisters of Providence and I count each as a blessing and a tremendous gift. I know they have prayed for me and my family through the years and our lives are truly blessed for their friendship and love. Truly they are an everlasting witness that our Provident God is alive through their works of justice, mercy and love to all.