Marie Hefler

When I was growing up as a student and attending grade school (K-8), the presence of Roman Catholic priests in my life instilled in me a life long dream to one day work for priests in their residence as a cook and/or housekeeper. A good neighbor and friend of my family, Mrs. Theresa Cernet, owned a corner grocery store on the street where we lived. In retirement, she cooked for the Monsignor here at SFX. After working for Illinois Bell and the Bell System Center for Technical Education for ten years and devoting another ten years to my family, I opted to pursue my life long dream. For references and experiences on my resume, I worked at Bethlehem Woods as a housekeeper for a few years (1994-1996) and currently in the food service industry with Sodexo for the last seventeen years. In the summer of 2008, the St. Francis Xavier Rectory posted a need in the bulletin for the priests’ residence housekeeper position. Fr. John Hoffman hired me on August 15, 2008 (the feast of the Assumption). This is my favorite memory.