Meet the Mullers: Bill, Mary-Ann, Jessica & Samantha

The Muller family (from left to right): Bill, Samantha, Jessica and Mary-Ann.

The Muller family (from left to right): Bill, Samantha, Jessica and Mary-Ann.

Bill was born and grew up in Middle Village. His mother was a “doting stay-at-home mom”, was a life-long member of Trinity and served as church secretary for many years until she passed away. His father kept him active with baseball, soccer, cub/boy scouts and took the family (Bill has one younger sister) camping for two weeks every summer. He passed away when Bill was twelve. As a teenager Bill had a “paper route” delivering the NY Post after school by bicycle.

Bill attended Sunday School at Trinity and after confirmation Bill became an acolyte. Just when he turned 18, Trinity instituted the Lay Minister program, and he has been one of the lay ministers since then, enjoying it very much. Bill took up computer science and worked as a programmer for a while before he enrolled in law school.

Meanwhile, as Bill was growing up and playing stickball, stoop ball, skully and ringolevio with the neighborhood kids, Mary-Ann was growing up, too, and playing tag, jump rope, jacks, card games in her neighborhood in the Bronx. She is the youngest of four girls. Her mother went with her on every school trip, attended every awards ceremony and brought her lunch when she was at grammar school. Her father died when Mary-Ann was three years old; her mom is still with them; Mary-Ann’s mom always “had too much to do at home” but managed to pray and take Mary-Ann to CCD (Confraternity of Christian Doctrine) where she learned her first prayer. She loved her days at Bronx High School of Science and still keeps in touch with some of her high school friends.

While studying at New York University she worked as a clerk at a law firm.

And so it came to pass, that after getting his law degree Bill joined the law firm where Mary-Ann was working. “She was very pretty”, says Bill. “I remember thinking he had beautiful blue eyes,” says Mary-Ann.

Today Bill works as an attorney at Hartford Insurance. Mary-Ann is tax director in financial services at Price Waterhouse Coopers. They have two lovely girls, Jessica, 11, and Samantha, 8. Both girls play soccer, softball and basketball; both also love to swim; both study tae kwon do martial arts – Jessica is a 2nd degree black belter; Sam is a purple belter. The two of them serve as acolytes. Bill and Mary-Ann have flexible work hours, enabling them to spend time with the girls.

Mary-Ann takes the children to Broadway shows and dinner for their birthdays. At Trinity she teaches Sunday school and is a member of the altar guild.

Bill reflects on how his mom greatly influenced his faith, “even more so after she died; during her battle with cancer, the love and generosity of the members of Trinity was what kept us going; through her I learned that death was not something to be feared. The people of Trinity are an inspiration, an incredible support system.”

“I enjoy being lay minister; I feel more a part of the service; it’s even more enjoyable now that I can serve with both girls being acolytes. One specific activity that I will never forget was in helping to move the organ to Trinity. Only those of us involved in the move can truly understand how much sweat was expended in moving what felt like a million pounds, and a million pieces. But seeing everyone who volunteered and persevered until the job was completed showed how much the members of the church care about Trinity.”

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