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Your Catholic Neighbor: Anna Marie Birk
Joyce Coronel/CATHOLIC SUN
Anna Marie Birk, a parishioner at St. Catherine of Siena since 1948, manages the office and befriends customers at Birk’s Automotive while her husband repairs cars.
Longtime south Phoenix
resident balances business, service to Church
By Joyce Coronel, The Catholic Sun
January 17, 2008
It’s not very often that you find someone in the Diocese of Phoenix who has resided in the same house and belonged to the same parish for nearly 60 years.
Anna Marie Birk is one of those rare individuals, having lived just around the corner from St. Catherine of Siena Church in south Phoenix since she moved here with her parents from New York in 1948.
At 67 years of age, Birk has many tales to tell, and tell them she does. An accomplished musician and artist who once raised emus, she’s written four engaging children’s books, self-publishing two of them. Sitting in her office just across the street from the church she’s belonged to since childhood, you can hear the bells chime on the hour. Birk remembers playing her accordion for the Sisters of Charity who ran the school.
“I was 10 or 11 and the accordion was bigger than I was. I used to love the red plush material on the inside of the case and I used to ask them, ‘Isn’t this pretty?’ They told me I shouldn’t be concerned about worldly things if I wanted to be a nun,” Birk laughed.
Birk’s love of music continued to be key in her life and as a young woman, she studied classical guitar and taught others how to play the accordion. From 1970 to 1984 she sang and played the guitar at Mass at St. Catherine’s. Her musical career took a slight detour following back surgery, but she’s recently returned to the music ministry. Birk sings low harmony at the 5:30 p.m. Mass every Saturday.
Her connection to the parish goes deeper than music, however. For nearly 10 years, Birk was the parish secretary. After her marriage in 1980, she served a stint as the parish’s part-time bookkeeper. These days, Birk is president of the church’s finance committee.
She and her husband opened Birk’s Automotive in 1981 and she’s been answering phones and doing the bookkeeping for the business ever since. The blue building that houses the auto repair shop sits directly across the street from St. Catherine’s and just in front of her longtime home.
Her office doubles as a waiting room for customers who are having work done on their vehicles. While there is no television and only a few magazines, visitors to the shop will be entertained while they wait nonetheless. Pictures of Jesus and Mary adorn the walls and visitors often become friends with the outgoing and creative Birk, who admits the business’ best source of advertising is the parish bulletin.
“I call the customers up, especially the older women, many of them widows on a fixed income and I tell them when they’re due for maintenance. They don’t want to get stuck somewhere, so we do preventive maintenance. That way the car doesn’t break down on them, and if it does, people know where we live and they come over and knock on our door.”
What’s your favorite quote?
“When you reach for the stars, you may not quite get them, but you won’t come up with a handful of mud, either.” This should be something for all kids to hear and take heart. To me it shows hope and the will to achieve.
What do you enjoy most about your job?
It’s the interaction with the customers. If the customers are waiting for their cars we sit here and chat. A lot of them become friends and sometimes we have dinner. One girl has become friends with Hot Rod, a kitten that was born behind the garage.
How does your work help you to grow in faith?
We resurrect cars! We witness a lot of resurrections time and again here, especially when they come in as a wrecker, and then they drive out of here. Sometimes people come in and their car is still under warranty, and as much as we’d like the money, we tell them to take it to the dealer. That way they can get it done for free.
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