Sister Maria Wiltraud

Sister Maria Wiltraud          ND 4251            PDF Download

Anna Bünnemeyer

Maria Regina Province, Coesfeld, Germany

Date and Place of Birth:                 23 January 1924        Lohne, County Vechta
Date and Place of Profession:      25 March 1950           Ahlen
Date and Place of Death:              30 December 2019    Coesfeld, Kloster Annenthal
Date and Place of Funeral:           03 January 2020        Coesfeld, Convent cemetery

Sister Maria Wiltraud, Anna Bünnemeyer, was the daughter of the businessman Ernst Bünnemeyer and his wife Elisabeth, née Möhlmann.

In her biography she writes, “I spent my childhood and youth together with my 4 siblings in my parental home. From 1930 to 1938, I attended the girls’ high school of the Sisters of Notre Dame in Lohne. After my mandatory year, I worked as an office assistant in a company in Lohne from 1940 to 1943 and then I returned to my parental home. In the boarding school in Cloppenburg, I took care of school-age children. It was then that there developed in me the growing wish to dedicate my whole life to the Lord.”

On 30^th January 1947, Anna entered our community in Mülhausen and at her investment on 8^th April1948, she received her religious name, Sister Maria Wiltraud. After her first profession in Ahlen, Sr. Maria Wiltraud ministered in different houses of our community.

Her special gift for music and mathematics became already obvious during her school time in Lohne and at our high school for girls in Mülhausen. In 1955, she obtained the Missio Canonica. Büren, Meppen, Ahlen, Berlin and Nottuln were among the stations in her religious life. From 1968 on, she lived in Nottuln until she moved to our home for elderly Sisters in Coesfeld in 2014. She gave music lessons at our school, established a flute and music circle, which performed at different celebrations, and she founded a children’s choir in our parish. Until shortly before moving to Coesfeld, Sister Maria Wiltraud gave private recorder lessons. In 1974, she passed the C-level exam at the ecclesiastical college for church music in Münster. For many years, she worked in the administration of houses and boarding schools.

Sister Maria Wiltraud loved animals. In Nottuln there were her cats and at Kloster Annenthal you could often meet her with Linus, our caretaker’s dog, outside in the yard in wind and weather.

At Kloster Annenthal, Sister Maria Wiltraud quietly went her own way; she would often sit thoughtfully on a bench, had a friendly word, and organized her day in her own way. She spent her last months and weeks in the infirmary. Her strength decreased more and more; she patiently accepted her old age, her infirmities, and the loving care of our co-workers until she completed her life in God just before the beginning of the New Year.