Sister Frances Cabrini Walmeier

(Published Feb. 6, 2009)

In her jubilarian’s statement, Sister Frances Cabrini Walmeier said her “retirement agenda” includes “time just to be!”

After 60 years as a Sister of St. Joseph and an almost equally lengthy career as a nurse and hospital administrator, “just being” may be a skill she will have to cultivate.

Sister Frances Cabrini grew up in Jennings, Kan., as one of 15 children in her family. After high school, she enrolled in the nursing program at Marymount College. But after just one semester, she left school to enter the Sisters of St. Joseph order in Concordia. After her postulancy and novitiate, she returned to Marymount where she graduated in 1953.

Her first service as a Sister of St. Joseph was at the hospital in Sabetha, where she worked for nine years. She was then sent to Atwood, where she served for six years as the hospital administrator, as well as running the lab and X-ray departments — skills she had learned out of necessity in Sabetha.

“We were almost frontier people,” she recalls of those early days in small hospitals. “We were finding our way and trusting God.”

In 1968, she was sent to St. Mary’s Hospital in Manhattan as assistant administrator, and she remained there for 20 years.

Then she returned to Concordia where for the next decade she served as administrator of St. Mary’s, then the retirement center for the order. When that center was closed and the sisters moved to the newly remodeled Stafford Hall at the Motherhouse, Sister Frances Cabrini was asked to serve as coordinator of health care services for the community. She was in that role until her retirement in June 2008.

Now living at the Motherhouse, Sister Frances Cabrini is looking forward to the jubilarians’ celebration in June. She has invited her seven surviving siblings and other family members to the event, which will be held in Concordia just days after the Sisters of St. Joseph conclude their yearlong 125th anniversary observance.
Retirement, she says, has been an adjustment for her, as she is shifting her attitude from that of a “doer” to someone who can “just be.” But the effort of the attitude shift is worthwhile, she adds with a smile.

“I marvel at the blessings and privileges that God has given me,” she said. “I’m just grateful for the time I’ve lived.”