Sister Stories

Ramona Meurer, FSM
Peacemaker for 2008

On July 26, 2008, Ramona Meurer, FSM, was due in Denver to receive the Franciscan Federation Peacemaker Award. Instead, she was riding out Hurricane Dolly, then helping her neighbors in Harlingen, Texas, shovel out from the storm’s devastation.

The Peacemaker Banquet honors someone “whose life and actions model for others a person who has moved out of their comfort level toward a deeper sense of Franciscan Evangelical Life and inspires others to do the same.”

Sr. Ramona lives that vision. “She has a gift—she’s not afraid to go anyplace, to do anything,” said her sister, Jeanne Meurer, FSM.

She serves as a volunteer with the local and national Red Cross, picking up at a moment’s notice to go where disaster strikes.

During the 9/11 tragedy, she served eight weeks at ground zero. She helped Katrina survivors, as well as victims of wildfires in the Northwest and California and of floods in northwestern Texas and Iowa. For decades she’s worked with the poorest of the poor.

“I probably march to a different drummer,” she said. “But you have to do what brings you peace.”

Sr. Ramona received her much-deserved award at the FSM October 2008 Gathering.