"Well he got (to the family reunion), and he was as normal as his brothers and sisters," she said. "He was so normal that my (hesitation) just disappeared, I was very comfortable with him, and he was just one of us. He played ball with the younger kids, he talked with everybody, he was just normal."
The family didn't talk much about the specific favors attributed to Fr. Solanus, Herkenrath said. One of Solanus' brothers, also a priest, had told the family that those matters were "between God, the Capuchins, and Solanus."
It was only after his death that she became involved in his cause for canonization, and started learning more about his life. For her part, she helped gather some recordings of Fr. Solanus that her dad had made of him on some old 7-inch 78 rpm records - recordings of Solanus saying a prayer, greeting the family, reciting a poem, and singing and playing the violin.
"I'm still in awe of him," Herkenrath said. "Again for his being so normal, and yet so in touch with God, so very in touch with God."
One of the most striking characteristics of Fr. Solanus is his profound humility and acceptance of God's will in all things, Webber said.
Never able to make good grades in seminary, which was taught all in Latin at the time, Fr. Solanus was only ever allowed to be a simplex priest for the order, meaning he wasn't allowed to preach or hear confessions.
Instead he was assigned as the porter, the doorkeeper, at the time a lesser role usually reserved for novice friars.
But it was a job "he accepted it humbly, joyfully, and in that obedience and that humility, God transformed him into a saint," Webber said.
"And I think many of us in our world today need that same lesson - humbly accept the reality you are given, joyfully serve the Lord in it, and he'll make you holy."
"(Fr. Solanus) once said to someone: 'What does it matter where we are sent? Wherever we are, we can serve God,'" Webber added.
Another characteristic of Fr. Solanus that Fr. Webber said he admired was the friar's pastoral ability to help people take life a little less seriously.
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As an example, Webber recalled one story where some good friends of Fr. Solanus were returning from vacation, and they stopped by the monastery to say hello to the friar.
After chatting for a bit, the friends told Fr. Solanus that they were hungry, but they weren't sure what they were going to eat, because the only thing they had left in their cooler were some hotdogs. It was Friday, and the Church at the time required the faithful to abstain from meat on that day every week.
"And (Fr. Solanus) said: 'Well how long have those hotdogs been in there?' And they said: 'Oh about a day or two.' And he said: 'Oh don't worry, they're fish by now,'" Webber recalled.
"He had a good sense pastorally," Webber noted, to take the faith seriously, but also, when appropriate, "not to take things overly seriously."
Having a brother within his own community being beatified has also caused Webber to examine his own holiness and call as a Capuchin, he added.
"Being holy...it's not just the vocation of Fr. Solanus, it's the vocation of all of us," Webber said.