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started--a pretty frame structure with cement foundations--on July 29, and on August 29, I said mass in it, although It [sic] was not quite finished at that time. Another week finished it and still another saw it painted, and then completed at the cost of about $2,000 it was clear of debt. On the 20th of September I was again at Loretto.
Again I visited Colorado, in January 1916, to attend the funeral of Catt. John J. Lambert of Pueblo, the friend of Bishop Matz and my own. Bishop Matz was ill at St. Elizabeth’s hospital in Lafayette, Indiana, at the time, and asked me to go as his representative. Returning I attended, as the representative of the diocese of Denver, the funeral of Bishop Scannell of Omaha. Then coming by Lafayette I visited Bishop Matz and saw him for the last time, for he returned to Denver a very sick man and lingered until the next year.
Another visit I made to Denver, was in 1919 to bury my sister, the last but one of six sisters, and the remaining one died since in Idaho at the age of ninety years, so that I am the last of a family of twelve born to my father and mother. Both sisters were were many years my seniors, so I may have a few years yet to live if I measure up to the standard of longevity of the family.
A new bishop had been instilled in Denver--Bishop Tinen-- and I called upon him to pay my respects and know his will in my regard. He said he would take care of me if I wished to return to Colorado, but added; ‘Go back to Loretto, stay as long as you like, and come back when you get ready.’
This remark left me free to remain at Loretto when Bishop O’Donaghue renewed my appointment the following year and later also when Father Oronin, the Administrator of the diocese, requested me to remain in Kentucky.
In 1927, I took a vacation of four months, during which I visited Cincinnati, Detroit, Notre Dame, St. Louis, Denver, Santa Fe, and made a tour by Kansas City. My Christmas was spent at El Paso, and I must say I saw more snow there than in Kentucky. A record of this trip I have written elsewhere, so there is no need to go into details of it here. Other trips I have made, but I cannot say that I have been a great traveler, although I have seen the cotton growing in the South, oranges in the Swannee country, the bad lands of the Dakotas, the timber forests of Oregon and Washington, the mines of Arizona, the shops of the Fords, the factory (steel mill) of Pennsylvania and visited as many as three-fourths of the individaal [individual] states; yet in the long period of my life I have been more of a home-body than a traveler and sight-seer, [sic] During these years there have been ups and downs and moments when I felt that my guardian angel protected me, and for what purpose I could not and cannot yet see except that it was the goodness of God to save me in eternity.
And what have I done in return? Very little. If friendships be a sign of good done, then I have done something, for among the Sisters whom I have seen enter and go out from Loretto I have many friends.