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| Format | Manuscript |
|---|---|
| Creator | Aylward, Monika Maria |
| Title, Manuscript | The Winding Path |
| Date | c2022 |
| Extent of Work | 102 pages, photographs |
| URL | |
| Donated by | William Aylward, on behalf of Monika Aylward |
| Abstract | Monika Schmidt was born October 3, 1941, at the St. Karolus Stift in Stettin, Pomerania. She was the second child of ten, one of three born during World War II to Johannes Aloisius and Hildegard Martha Schmidt. In her account, Monika provides details about her grandparents, her family's life in Stettin, and her post-war life first in Wevelinghoven, North Rhine-Westphalia, and then in Rhederfeld, a small hamlet near Rhede in Landkreis Emsland, Lower Saxony. Here Monika's father built a home for orphaned boys. In the fall of 1951, sponsorship was arranged through the National Catholic Welfare Conference for the family to immigrate to Madison, Wisconsin, where Johannes was to work in agriculture. As his trade was as a builder, he declined this offer. The family then learned about a German family in Columbus, Ohio, and it was here that the family relocated. In Columbus they found remnants of German language and culture, especially "in places like Schiller Park and Saint Mary's Catholic Church, where the pastor and some of the older Franciscan sisters spoke fluent German." Describes home life for this German-American family, as well as Monika's life as an aspirant and postulate with the Sisters of St. Francis in Joliet, Illinois. She left the order in 1963, but was allowed to finish her degree at De Paul University in Chicago, after which she returned to Columbus, and taught at St. Ceclila's School. Shortly after she met and married Tom Aylward. |
| Call Number | Digital file |
| MKI Terms | Family histories/ Aylward/ 20th century/ Emigration and immigration (Germany-US)/ Pomerania/ German Americans -- Ohio/ World War, 1939-1945 |