Hospital Sisters of the Third Order Regular of St. Francis
"We should make people happy!" Elizabeth of Thuringia
The good and merciful God completed the life of our fellow sister after 98 years Sister M. Irmingardis on February 18, 2023 Sister M. Irmingardis was born on October 9, 1924. She entered our religious community on August 11, 1950. She made her first profession on May 3, 1953.
Sister M. Irmingardis was born in Petersfeld near Cloppenburg. After her schooling, she completed an apprenticeship on her parents' farm, graduating as a rural domestic helper, as it was called at that time. Elisabeth became acquainted with the Franciscan Sisters at St. Joseph's Hospital in Cloppenburg, where she worked in nursing and in the canteen and diet kitchen.
At the age of 26, the young woman entered the Mauritz Franciscan Sisters and was given the religious name Sister M Irmingardis. After passing her nursing exams in Münster, she worked as a nurse and ward sister in Ennigerloh, Osterfeld, Waldniel and Moers until 1982. She fondly remembered her time in Billerbeck, where she was employed in nursing care for the elderly for 27 years. For reasons of age she went to Kroge in 2009, where she was happy to help in many places of the house. Even on the evening before her sudden death, she prayed grace for the residents in the residential group where she last lived as a senior citizen.
Sister M. Irmingardis was a joyful, friendly person who liked to make others happy and always radiated joy herself. We remember many celebrations in the Sisters' circle and in the family, where she recited her own poems and good wishes. She was a true Franciscan who lived up to her baptismal names of Elisabeth and Franziska. We would have liked to celebrate her 70th anniversary in April, but God had other plans when he called her in the morning hours of February 18 and took her to himself.
Gratefully we take leave of Sister M. Irmingardis. In prayer and in the celebration of the Eucharist we pray for her and remain attached to her as sisters.
We bid farewell to Sister M. Irmingardis and celebrate the Resurrection Mass for her on Thursday, February 23, 2023 at 2:00 p.m. in the convent church in Kroge. Afterwards we will escort her to her last resting place at the cemetery in Kroge.