Sister Mary Wilfrid Huettal, OSB

(Picture taken in 2006 at the age of 97 for her 75th Jubilee as a nun of Scared Heart Monastery, Cullman, AL)


Sister Mary Wilfrid Huettal, OSB
July 19, 1909—February 16, 2009

A Tribute to Her Influence

I was 10 years old that September of 1955 when I entered the fifth grade at St. John the Baptist Catholic School, Tuscaloosa, Alabama. Within a month, Oct. 5, I turned eleven years old. Everyone said that she was a very strict teacher. As a very shy kid who always followed the rules, at least at school, I was hoping that she wouldn’t be mean or worse. Little did I know that the next two years would be two very prosperous and happy years. Her name was Sister Mary Wilfrid. I had had Sister Mary Thomas in first grade, Sister Monica and Sister Lucy in second, Sister Anastasia in the third, Sister Francine in fourth, and now, Sister Mary Wilfrid. All of these teachers came from Cullman, Alabama where their motherhouse was located—Sacred Heart Monastery. They were Benedictine nuns whose main ministry at that time was staffing elementary schools and high school schools in Alabama and Florida, and Sacred Heart College in Cullman. The OSB after their names stood for the words “Order of St. Benedict.”

The expression that “students take teachers and not subjects” was ever so true about Sister Mary Wilfrid. After the first day in class, I never knew why the older kids had warned us that Sister was strict and it wouldn’t be a fun class. That was far from the truth. More than likely, the negative propaganda was perpetuated by the rowdies of the previous class.

I don’t remember details of the curriculum we studied during those two sweet years, but I made average grades in all subjects. I do know that I received my first, very own Bible that first year, and we read it a lot and made reference to its contents on a daily basis.

The woman who commanded our class was a person who taught us a lot more than the subject matter at hand. She taught more by her many life stories than we could have ever learned from our math and science books. Self revelation was her technique to get the point across. Right at the start she told us about her time before she entered the convent in 1931. She had worked as a secretary for some business in Memphis. This would have been right after high school. There was an automobile accident that she witnessed which happened right in front of her place of work. The business was on the corner of intersecting streets. She saw it all and was a prime witness, but she shirked her responsibility and went home without saying a word to anyone. I can still hear her say. “This was NOT right. I should have stayed and become involved in what had happened. Now, boys and girls, I don’t want you to be like that. Now, you hear me. You must be involved in people’s lives. Don’t run away like I did.

When trying to settle a disagreement (fight) that had happened on the playground during recess, Sister Mary Wilfrid reminded us that we were not the ones who were called to dish out punishment for wrongs committed against us. She said, “Children, remember, God’s mill grinds slowly. It may be slow but it is sure.” Later, I would read where she got that quote. It was right out of Paul’s letter to the Romans in the 12th chapter. The apostle reminded his readers, “Beloved, never avenge yourselves, but leave it to the wrath of God, for it is written, "Vengeance is mine, I will repay, says the Lord."

In those days our little school rarely had a “certified” physical education teacher. Sister Mary Wilfrid, however, was more than a classroom teacher. She was also a dance instructor! Square dance, at that! All four classes of 5th through 8th grades would assemble in the large auditorium which was an actual gym, stage with curtain and auditorium wrapped up into one large facility. Sister cared little for matching sizes of kids to make up the four couples in each square dance group. As a fifth grader I was matched with an eighth grade girl named Rosalind Reynolds. Rosalind seemed to be about 8 feet tall and I had to stand on my toes and she had to bend down low for me to twirl her under my arm. The Victrola (this will not spell-check) and accompanying records were enough to initiate us into the world of square dancing. Sister would walk us through all the calls several times as she explained the “swing your partner,” “dosey-do,” “promenade left or right,” “sachet your partner” as well as a half a dozen other square dance moves. The fun part came when she turned the record over. The flip side of the record was just the music and no caller. Sister became the caller. Sister was in her glory as she began to change the order of the calls from what we had learned so that we really had to be on our “toes” to make sure we followed exactly her square dance commands. Where she learned to do this, I never knew. I do recall several years later when I was at St. Bernard Abbey in the high school seminary that Father John Capesius asked me where I learned to play the piano. I told him that my first teacher was Sister Mary Vincent Beckman, OSB. He replied with his thick German accent as it rolled out of the side of his mouth, “Umph, tat’s alle does nuns know how to du is pute on plaeys and plaey de piano!” I added, “And they sure know how to square dance, too.” Father John didn’t catch it and I didn’t try to explain. How could I?

To my delight the dance lessons continued after I left Mary Wilfrid’s 6th grade as we moved into Sister Barbara’s 7th and 8th grade. In the seventh grade, the Birmingham area of the Mobile Diocese had a Festival for the upper elementary/junior high grades. It was held in a large diocesan school in Birmingham—maybe John Carroll High School. St. John’s students practiced for months. Sister Mary Wilfrid choreographed not only the square dances, but she had us do various folk dances (German and American) and even an Indian dance all with appropriate costumes. My mother was brought into the act with her sewing ability when she designed and produced fringed, leather-like shirts for all the boys. We had lederhosen and knee socks costumes for the German dance. This was a first rate production. All the entries to the festival were adjudicated. When the final performance ended and the votes tallied, St. John’s School won the competition. A couple of years ago, I was talking with Sister Mary Wilfrid by telephone. I had called her as I did for several years on her birthday. She was 97 that day and I asked her if she remembered the Festival. Wow! Her memory was still VERY sharp and her story telling ability never seemed to wane. She remembered the entire event like it was yesterday. She told me that she “got into trouble” with the higher ups because they said that no school should be that good unless that’s all they were doing during the school day.

After graduating from the 8th grade in 1959, Sister Mary Wilfrid “followed” me with letters of encouragement, Christmas letters, and happy notes about how wonderful life is. In recent years, I remember getting a Christmas card (2005, I believe) and she told me that she was up in years, in fact, was 96 years old. She wanted me to pray for her since “no one should live to be so old,” she said. In a phone conversation a couple of years ago, Sister asked me for my home phone number and after she had written that down she asked me for my cell number. I asked her why she wanted the numbers. She replied, “I want to call you when I know I’m on my way out of here. I’m 97, you know.” Well, she didn’t make the call, but I’ve been expecting this day to come for a long time. Thanks to an alert public relations person at St. Bernard Abbey, Alabama (near Sacred Heart Monastery), I received an e-mail this afternoon telling me of Sister Mary Wilfrid’s death yesterday, February 16.

We all can think of that special person who influenced us a lot--most of the time it was a teacher or a coach. Sister Mary Wilfrid, OSB was that person for me as well as for countless other school children whom she taught over a 50 year career of teaching. I’ll miss her.

Ronald Davis (former student of Sister M. Wilfrid, OSB)