The typhologist Franica Vrhunc was born on June 10, 1881 in Kranjska Gora, where she spent a very tender childhood. When she was four years old, the family moved to Praše pri Mavčiče (near Kranj). After attending the private elementary school at the Lichtenthurn Institute in Ljubljana, which was run by the Sisters of Mercy, she enrolled in a one-year course for kindergarten teachers (preschool teachers) at the state teacher training center in Ljubljana. She graduated on June 14, 1898. She then entered the Order of the Daughters of Christian Charity of St. Vincent de Pavelski (Order of the Sisters of Mercy) in Graz, Austria. Her religious name was Sister Klara, but she left the order in 1921. After her return from Graz, she fulfilled her mission as an educator and teacher at the Lichtenthurn Institute in Ljubljana and in Marija dom in Kočevje as an assistant and unqualified teacher (without a professional exam). In Croatia, she worked in a kindergarten in Osijek and in Volosko near Opatija. She was caught up in the First World War in Kočevje when she was working in Marija's home. In July 1914, she was transferred to the Odilien-Blinden-Anstalt in Graz, Austria, because Marija's home in Kočevje was closed down and turned into a military hospital. This marked the beginning of a completely new life for her, to which she remained faithful until her well-deserved retirement on February 1, 1946, at the age of almost 65.