Sister Barbara Herrmann

I grew up in a family of three boys and four girls with a religious mother and father. My mother always had a statue of the Blessed Virgin Mary on her dresser in her bedroom, whom I knew she prayed to often. She attended daily Mass when she was able and took us with her since we were not yet in school. I knew I wanted to enter a religious community since the third grade because my third grade teacher was a religious whom I admired.  I attended Catholic grade school and Villa Maria High School. When I went to Villa Maria High School, and met the Sisters of the Humility of Mary, I knew I wanted to be one of them because of their concern for all of us at the high school. They were very hospitable and kind to everyone. After graduation, I waited a year before I entered because my mother was the bookkeeper for my father’s business and I had a younger sister of three years of age that needed attention because my mother was very busy doing the bookwork and keeping the household going. When I walked through the door at the Villa, I knew that was where I belonged. I have spent 60 years working in the community as an educator in our schools, working in the finance department and now in the transportation department taking sisters to doctor appointments. As long as the Good Lord gives me my health, I will do whatever I can to serve Him and the HM Community.