She was the oldest of 11 children — six girls and five boys — who lived to maturity; others, including twins, died at birth.

Mother Mary Theodosia Mug recalled her coming to them with her arms full of music books even though they had not sought her out.

[4] She became the close companion of their Superior General, Mother Mary Cleophas Foley, and accompanied her in all matters for 30 years.

[7] Shortly after her election as superior of the academy in 1897, she suffered a severe scalding of one foot that left her somewhat lame for life, and needing a special shoe.

She was violently injured in 1925 with a weeks-long recovery, after a cyclone, which the South Bend Tribune described as "one of the most severe" in the region's history, damaged the building in which she was working, shattering windows and knocking her to the floor.

[8][9] When Mother Mary Cleophas was dying in December 1928, Sister Mary Alma said at her bedside, "If I go to heaven first, I shall take you; and if you go first, you must take me," perhaps an echo of the biblical Book of Ruth 1:16, "for where you go I will go, and where you lodge I will lodge; your people shall be my people, and your God my God" (RSV).