Sister Mary Gilda Sturino, SSND

This year is the 61st anniversary of my vows, and each day I am more grateful for the gift of my vocation. The desire that I sensed in 6th grade was to help others like the Sisters did. At 13, I asked Pa about being a Sister. He said, "You don't know anything." Well, that was that!

Then, at 16 I entered the convent, but the very next day, my Ma came to get me; so I went home. After about two weeks, Ma asked me if I wanted to be a Sister. "Yes", I said. The next day my brother Sam drove me back to Milwaukee . . . But! The very next day, again, my Ma was there to take me home. So I talked to my confessor about this and he said, "Enroll in high school again. Your mother probably wants you around the house for a while." I said, "But I'm not an only child!"

Well, I enrolled in high school for the third time that year and by that time I had really "LOST FACE" with the Sisters and didn't keep up any contact with them.

One day in my senior year, my friend, Ed Carroll, (who is now a priest) stopped by to tell me the Sisters had called (we had no phone) and wanted me to do some shopping for them. I said, "Tell them I'll be right down."

While I was enjoying a buttermilk and cookie treat after shopping, one of the Sisters said, "Do you know that your trunk is still in the basement?" I said, "Yes." "Do you ever think of being a Sister?" I said, "Yes." Well, I told Ma all this when I got home and she, too, asked if I wanted to be a Sister. Nothing else was said. Little by little the Sisters had me doing more errands and I was regaining "FACE!"

So, thanks to God's phone call, I entered in September of 1942 and every day I am more and more grateful for the gift of my vocation with its mystery of saying "YES."

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