We remember with gratitude Sr. Barbara (James Marie) Geib, who died at Evergreen Health, Monroe, Washington, surrounded by a roomful of friends singing “Amazing Grace.”
Sr. Barbara was a Sister of Notre Dame for 65 years. For several weeks before her death, she was at Brookdale Assisted Living, then Regency Care Center in Monroe, where she had visited patients regularly for many years. When arriving, she was warmly greeted by physical therapists, nurses, aides, cafeteria workers and staff. At a recent visit, Monroe Police honored Sister Barbara by playing the bagpipes for her.
Born in San Francisco, Barbara graduated from Notre Dame High School, Belmont, before entering the Notre Dame Community. For 21 years, she taught in Notre Dame elementary schools in Marysville, Salinas, Honolulu, Santa Clara, Saratoga, California; and Des Moines and Seattle, Washington. In 1967, she responded to a need for a parish Sister in what was then a small rural parish in Monroe, Washington.
Her role as a parish Sister soon expanded to include being a chaplain and domestic violence advocate for the Monroe Police and Fire Department. Rev. Philip Bloom, pastor of St. Mary of the Valley Parish, described the “energy, enthusiasm, support and deep involvement in the community” that Sr. Barbara brought to the parish and to everyone she encountered. Sr. Elisabeth Tiernan, who has also served for many years in the Northwest, wrote that “Sr. Barbara has made the words of St. Julie, Notre Dame’s foundress, come alive: ‘How good is the good God!’ She has lived a life sharing that goodness.”
Sr. Barbara was loved and will be greatly missed by her brother, Gerald, her cousins, Fran and Mary Croak, by hundreds of other friends from the church and community, and her own Sisters of Notre Dame.
The Vigil Service, followed by an all-night wake will be at 7:30 p.m. on Wednesday, February 7, and a Mass of Thanksgiving will be celebrated on Thursday, February 8, at 10:30 a.m. at St. Mary of the Valley Church in Monroe, the heart of Sr. B’s 41-year ministry. Another celebration of her life will take place on a later date at the Notre Dame Province Center in Belmont, California.
Memorial contributions may be made to Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur, 1520 Ralston Avenue, Belmont, CA 94002 or online at snddenca.org.
Arrangements entrusted to Purdy & Kerr with Dawson Funeral Home, Monroe, 360-794-7049.
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