Sister Lila Marie Schmidt — 60 years

BORN: Pfeifer, Kan.
ENTERED CONGREGATION: March 18, 1950

I was born July 4, 1933, the eighth of 13 children born to Catherine Breit Schmidt and George J. Schmidt on a farm near Pfeifer, Kan. I had a very loving mother, and my father was very strict. I was very close to my six brothers and six sisters.

At 16, I came to the Sisters of St. Joseph of Concordia, Kan. I was too young to fully understand the steps I had taken, but I always liked to work and I liked people so I got along real well. I had a great respect for my superiors and loved every one of them. Mother Helena, who was superior of the house when I entered, had a big influence on my life. She sent me out to help in a hospital kitchen right after I came out of the novitiate at the age of 18. By the time I was 20, I was in full charge of the kitchen in our hospital in Belvedere, Ill.

When Vatican II came along, it opened a whole new horizon for me, and I volunteered for the Jesuit Missions at the Pine Ridge and Rosebud reservations in South Dakota.

I loved my work at the Missions and stayed there for five years. Eventually I spent time in St. Louis, Mo., and then settled in Salina, Kan. It was there that I got interested in doing home care for the elderly in St. John’s Hospital and in their homes. I liked my work and stayed with it for about eight years.

In May 1995, I started thinking about my own semi-retirement and moved to our Motherhouse in Concordia. I have done everything that I wanted to do in my life. The rest is up to God.