by Danny Heitman
Originally appearing in the Wall Street Journal on October 15, 2025, the following piece is reprinted here with permission
We live in an age of wonders, so perhaps I shouldn’t have been surprised to come across an online service that helps people find nuns. It happened after a glance at my personal library prompted memories of my first-grade teacher, Sister Albertine Winkler, who taught me in 1970.
Scanning my bookcase, which contains a few hundred volumes, it occurred to me that none of them would make sense if Sister Albertine hadn’t grown me into a reader. Under her firm hand, my classmates and I marched through our ABCs in unison, voicing each letter like an orchestra tuning for a show. Soon we were stringing letters together, bead by bead on little strands, to make words.
Sister Albertine showed me how the English language could sing on the page. Wouldn’t it be nice to thank her?
My teacher seemed old to me at the time, but any adult can look ancient to a child. I wondered if she was still around to receive a thank-you note and found the website of her order, the School Sisters of Notre Dame, had a “Search for a Sister” button on its landing page.
Shortly after I filed my request form, Grace Ávila, the order’s assistant archivist, reached me with the news that Sister Albertine had died at 88 in 1999. Ms. Ávila shared an obituary that helped me better know my first teacher.
Sister Albertine had been a prodigy, securing an office job in a construction company when she was 14. Despite a promising corporate career, she answered the call to religious life, shaping thousands of young minds over decades. I laughed when I read that Sister Albertine decided at 87 to learn how to use a computer. It pointed to her can-do spirit.
The School Sisters of Notre Dame’s North American Archives get about 1,000 requests a year for information on its nuns. Michele Levandoski, who oversees the archives, told me that about half the queries come from former students. “While we are able to connect with students whose teachers are alive and well, I would say the majority of the sisters we are asked about are deceased,” Ms. Levandoski said. “When people reach out looking for a sister, if she is deceased, they will often let our staff know why she was important.”
As another school year unfolds, many other students will connect with teachers who change their lives. Thank them now, while you still have the chance.