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Out on the water near her family's home in North Point, 1934.

1. Belonging to God

Sr. Mary Elizabeth Gintling was born on December 31, 1914, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Her family moved from Philadelphia to Baltimore, Maryland about six months later.

Her father’s name was Henry and her mother's name was Dessie. They met and were married in Gettysburg, Pennsylvania. They had five children, four boys (Roger, Harry, Nevin, and Robert) and one girl, the middle child, Mary Elizabeth. From an early age her mother called her Mae, in honor of Dessie’s mother. Henry and Dessie later assumed the care of the son of Dessie’s brother following the death of his wife. The boy’s name was Bruno, and he became a part of the family.

Mae attended St. Anne’s elementary school in Baltimore. When she was twelve, her family moved to North Point, Maryland, about sixteen miles from Baltimore. Henry built a house for his family on the shores of North Point Creek and worked in the nearby steel mill.

Mae studied at Sparrow’s Point High School. She graduated in 1934, after taking a year off to care for her ailing grandmother.

After high school, Mae entered the community of the School Sisters of Notre Dame. She realized that she was not called to be a teacher, and left the community during her novitiate. Mae was interested in nursing and so entered Mercy Hospital’s Nursing School in Baltimore. She graduated in 1941 and worked for a few years as a public health nurse in the Highland Town area of Baltimore. 

Still interested in religious life, Mae entered the Little Sisters of the Poor in 1943. This community cares for the elderly in residences and nursing homes around the world.

I wanted to become a nun from the time I was three years old. From the first time I realized what these women were doing who were dressed so differently. What attracted me so much was that they belonged to God. And I knew somehow that I belonged to God. I wasn't sure what that meant or how I should go about it, but I did know that once I saw a nun and heard what they were then I knew that is what I had to be.

In my whole life I have never been interested in anything but doing things for God. It’s no virtue on my part, it's imbued in me. When I would get into trouble for anything I would always say the Memorare and depend on the Blessed Mother to take care of things. I really depended on her because I never worried about it once I went to her with it. [laughter]

I was quite old when I became a nun. And my mother said, "Oh child, think about that, they try you very hard and you have to clean out the cracks of the floor with a pin." All these things that she had heard. [laughter]

And I said, "Mother, you can only do one thing at a time in life, if you are cleaning out the cracks with a pin you are not doing something else. It doesn't matter what you are doing."

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