Sister Carolinda was called to religious life very early, in elementary school. In sixth grade, her teacher asked all the girls what they were going to do when they grew up, and S. Carolinda answered, “I want to be a nun.” Then, she said, “I never thought about it any more until I grew up.”

Born in Cudworth, Saskatchewan, Canada, the fifth of 17 children, S. Carolinda grew up to be a rather lean young woman, “not much more than skin and bones,” she said. Sister Lucretia Heltemes assigned her to help with the turkeys while she was an aspirant and postulant, to get her out in the fresh air. The work was hard. She carried water from the horse barn to the turkeys in two four-gallon pails at a time, and it made her strong, she said. She also made candles in the winter and helped with the long process of preparing flax for weaving.

In her first ministry, she spent eight years at White Earth Reservation helping with housework and preparing the lunchroom for the school children. Then she moved to the Cold Spring nursing home for seven years, performing various duties. After Cold Spring, she was assigned to night watch at the College of Saint Benedict and the monastery, where she let girls she caught sneaking in after curfew go with just a warning, she said.

She moved to Saint Scholastica Convent and served as a driver for the Sisters there until recently. She continues to reside at Saint Scholastica, making candles and growing geraniums and amaryllis.