Sister Barbara Simek

Mankato Mortuary 1001 N. Riverfront Drive Mankato, Minnesota 56001 507-388-2202 Our beloved Sister Barbara Simek died peacefully at 12:20 p.m. on her seventieth birthday, Wednesday, October 28, 2015, in Notre Dame Healthcare, Our Lady of Good Counsel, Mankato, Minnesota. Following a cancer diagnosis about two years ago, she continued to live as full a life as possible. In September she entered Hospice. Sister Barbara's sister, Marcie Schleeve, her daughter, and several sisters were with her when she died. The Funeral Mass for Sister Barbara, with Father Timothy Reker as presider, will be at 10:30 a.m., Tuesday, November 3, in Good Counsel Chapel, Mankato. A prayer service of remembrance will be held at 9:00 Tuesday morning followed by visitation until the time of the funeral. Sister Barbara requested that her body be cremated immediately after death; her cremains will be buried in our cemetery following the Funeral Mass. We extend our sympathy to her sisters, Rose (Tom) Novotny, Marge (Dave) Nordwall and Marcie (Tim) Schleeve, and her brothers, Frank (Agnes), John (Ann Schultz), George (Diane), Ed (Geneva), and Tom (Val), her brother-in-law, Rich Molitor, her nieces and nephews and their families, her friends and colleagues, and her sisters in community, the School Sisters of Notre Dame. She was preceded in death by her parents, Frank and Lillian (Voracek) Simek, her brothers, Joe and Gilbert, and a sister, Lucy Lilienthal-Molitor. Sister Barbara was born in Lonsdale, Minnesota, on her parents' wedding anniversary, October 28, 1945, the third child and third daughter in the family. She was baptized Barbara Ann two days later at Immaculate Conception Church in Lonsdale. Two more girls and seven boys later completed the family of twelve children. The Simek family farmed near Lonsdale and Barbara experienced the many aspects of farm life as she grew up. She enrolled in first grade at Immaculate Conception School in 1951, where she was taught by School Sisters of Notre Dame. She later wrote, "Having School Sisters of Notre Dame as teachers all through grade school, and seeing how happy they were, I decided I would be one. After eighth grade, I had to decide if I wanted to continue in my Catholic education or if I would rather attend a public school. Both of my older sisters were in public school. I wanted to join them, and yet I wanted to enter the aspiranture at Good Counsel Academy in Mankato. I decided on the latter. After being there two weeks, I became very lonesome and decided it would be better if I went home. My father tried to convince me that I'd be returning someday, but I didn't want to be convinced of that." Barbara attended New Prague High School and graduated in 1963. She described the next step in her call to SSND: "After completing my education in a public school, I had to make a decision once again. I knew I had a religious vocation, so I chose to come back to Good Counsel. I entered the postulate on September 1, 1963." During her year in the postulate, Barbara began her preparation to be a home service sister, learning a variety of skills that would be helpful in this ministry. Barbara was received into the novitiate in 1964 and given the name Sister Mary Francella, a form of her father's name. She later returned to her baptismal name. Following profession of vows in 1965, she worked in the Good Counsel kitchen for one year under the tutelage of Sister Stanisia Sticka and other food service personnel. She then looked forward to mission life, hoping to be in a small community somewhere in the province, but she was missioned across the Hill to Good Counsel Academy, where she helped provide meals and other services for the resident students. She wrote, "They were four very delightful years with the girls." In 1970 she moved to St. Francis de Sales in St. Paul, a mission of fifteen sisters. She commented, "I enjoyed it very much because there were many interesting foods I could make and I was able to get to know the sisters." In 1971 Sister Barbara was transferred to SS. Peter & Paul, Mankato, where she stayed one year, and was then called back to the Academy. In 1975, she worked a short time in the motherhouse kitchen and then in November, began working at another boarding school, St. Mary, in New England, North Dakota, where she stayed until 1977. During her years in Mankato she took a number of cooking and baking classes at Mankato Vocational School. She spent part of 1977 at Immaculate Heart of Mary Seminary, Winona, and then returned to Good Counsel. In 1981, she moved to SS. Peter & Paul, where her home service ministry evolved into parish ministry. Her baking and cooking skills were a part of her ministry as she provided treats for various gatherings. Sister Barbara's food service ministry took a new direction in 1988 when she again joined the staff of IHM Seminary in Winona. Her mentor, Sister Stanisia, was also on the staff and cooked for Bishop John Vlazny. In addition to taking care of the seminarians' physical hunger (many of them reported gaining weight in their seminary years), Sister Barbara was a calm, listening presence for the young men. One of them wrote to her, "Thank you. I am proud to call you a friend. I have a lot of respect for you. Your willingness to give me all the leftover salads was just one expression of your love for me and the whole seminary community. I always enjoyed talking with you between classes . . . and you always listened and said something to put things in perspective. . . . Love, humility, earthiness and simple holiness were your hallmark." In 1997 Sister Barbara left IHM and became the coordinator of hospitality for Good Counsel Education Center. In June 1998, after a six-month sabbatical, she moved to Prior Lake, Minnesota and began another facet of her food service ministry, working at both the Franciscan Retreat Center and in the Prior Lake Public School lunch program. After six months, she worked only in the school lunch program and was on the staff of Kids Company, an after-school childcare service. She continued her work with Kids Company during the summer months. During her years in Prior Lake, she was also active in the parish, bringing Communion to the homebound and serving as a receptionist for evening events. In 2008, Sister Barbara became assistant manager for food service at Grainwood School in Prior Lake, a position she held until illness necessitated her move to Good Counsel in early 2014. Sister Barbara shared her baking skills with her SSND community and with the larger community as well. For many years she coordinated the baking of hundreds of loaves of bread for the Good Counsel Craft Fair. In 2003 she was recognized in the Mankato Free Press for her contribution to an annual fund raiser for VINE, a Mankato outreach group. The article began, "Sister Barbara Simek's cookie recipes don't call for cups of anything. A batch of her cookies needs pounds of ingredients - 18 pounds of flour and 10 pounds of brown sugar. Sister Simek is the main mixer of cookie dough for the 36,000 cookies baked for the VINE Faith in Action fund raiser each year. Every batch she mixes together yields between 600 and 1,000 cookies." She commented recently, "I have loved all my ministry in cooking and baking for others. When I made a complete Thanksgiving dinner for people in the area who had no one to be with for the day, each year more and more people came." Willing to be of service wherever she could, she volunteered as a summer driver at Good Counsel and helped in various other capacities. At different times in her ministry, she worked at a shelter for battered women, volunteered for a summer in Honduras, worked in summer migrant programs and volunteered for Birthright. In the two years following her cancer diagnosis, she stayed as involved in Hill activities as she was able. She could often be found praying in one of the back chapel pews. She remained close to her large family, and they in turn were close to her. Cited by others as an inspiration in the way that she accepted each day, she put her life in God's hands. May Sister Barbara, who so willingly used her own hands in service of others, now be enjoying a heavenly celebration of life in God's hands.