PLANNED GIVING
Ursuline Associate Relationships Led to Legacy Gift Born in Eldridge, North Dakota, Irene Boelke attended school there until her parents moved to Louisville, Kentucky, in 1939, when she was twelve. She attended St. Leo the Great elementary school and Ursuline Academy, from which she graduated in 1946. She married Jake Link a year after she graduated, and together they had five children. Years later, Irene and her daughter, Karen enrolled in nursing school and became licensed practical nurses. Jake passed away in 1975. Irene taught courses in the practical nursing curriculum at the former Louisville Vocational Technical Institute. A shared interest in square dancing brought recently widowed Irene and recently widowed John Mueller together. In 1976, they sashayed into a happy union. Thus, Irene added four stepchildren, including Sister Marilyn Mueller to her blended family circle. For John and Irene, square dancing, volunteering, and family camping trips filled their days. Active and adventurous, they were searching for ways to enrich their spirituality when they spotted an ad in the Louisville Catholic newspaper, The Record, about the Ursuline Associate Call program, “Come & See.” They came, saw, and joined. In 1987, they became Ursuline Associates who engage in prayer, mutual support and service to others as lay people guided by the charism of St. Angela Merici and the Ursulines. Their enthusiasm attracted family members, and soon, being an Associate became a “family affair.” Throughout the years, Irene and John donated to many Ursuline appeals and ministries, including: the chapel renovation and restoration projects; relocation of the Ursuline Academy entrance arch from downtown to the Motherhouse grounds; the congregation’s greatest needs; the operation of the
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SUMMER 2021 | DOME
former nursing facility, Marian Home; the Peru Mission, and the purchase of a handicap accessible van for the Sisters. An Associate for ten years, John passed away in 1997. Widowed for the second time, Irene kept busy with her family, friends, volunteer work and participation in Associate programs, liturgies, lunches, reflection groups and projects. At the time of her passing, in February 2021, she had been an Associate for thirty-four years. Grateful for the family’s Ursuline connections and her own education, Irene remembered both the Sisters and the Associates in a planned gift for future needs.