South Bend, Indiana
Ever-concerned about Karl's safety in the mine, Caroline was anxious for the family to find another place to be. Father
Shanley was teaching at Notre Dame and he encouraged the family to move to South Bend, Indiana. So early in the summer of
1953 Mom and her dad went to South Bend, staying with Father Shanley, and Karl got work as a union carpenter and Mom got a
job working for Dr. Backs's family practice. When Caroline and the younger kids (Bonnie, David, Frank, Bernadette, Michael,
Mary Jane, and Tom) arrived later in the summer they stayed in a motel for a month until they bought a house on Brick Road.
In the following years Karl worked on a neighbor's house and, as payment, got their house across the street on Brick Road
when they moved out. It was a bigger, nicer house but with often long periods between carpentry jobs for Karl, it was a
struggle to make the payments and after ten years the contractor claimed the house.
Mom continued to work for Dr. Backs for just over a year. The next summer she enrolled at St. Mary's College at Notre Dame,
resuming her studies in chemistry. After a year of studies she entered a convent: the novitiate of the Sisters of Loretto in
Nerinx, Kentucky. Her year in the convent was enjoyable and Mom thought the other girls and the nuns were wonderful and
they were all very close, but it became clear to her that her life was outside the convent Just after Easter, 1956 Mom
returned home to South Bend.
On returning to South Bend, Mom got a job as a chemical technician at Bendix, testing rubber products and oils for
viscosity and strength as part of quality control. Her friend Tony Milos was a classmate in Lead who, like the Frosts, had
come to South Bend with the help of Father Shanley. Tony asked Mom if she'd like to attend a Notre Dame ball with her
friend Bill Squires's friend John Linehan. She accepted, and they planned to meet before the ball.
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