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(1941-2024)
On the first day of summer, June 21, 1941, Richard and Margaret (Sheldon) Kowalski of Grosse Pointe Woods, Michigan, welcomed their first child into the world, a girl they named Joan Elizabeth.
Joan would be followed three years later by a boy, Richard. At the time of Joan’s birth, according to her birth certificate, her father was an accountant for the Ferry-Morse Seed Company, but at some point thereafter, he apparently became chief financial officer for the Packard Motor Car Co. According to a story Joan herself told, her father left the company after his advice was not heeded on changes that needed to be made or it would go out of business – and Packard did, indeed, cease operations in the late 1950s.
The family moved to a farm in Whitmore Lake, Michigan, a short distance west of Detroit. Although Richard never actually farmed the land – he worked in real estate and insurance -- it was a perfect place for his children and their friends to play and have all sorts of adventures.
Joan attended grade school first at Gesu in Detroit, then after the family’s move to Whitmore Lake, she attended St. Thomas School in Ann Arbor and then St. Patrick School in Brighton. The latter gave her her first experience with the Adrian Dominican Sisters. When it was time for high school, she came to Adrian to attend St. Joseph Academy.
She had completed her second year as an “Academy girl” when she wrote to Mother Gerald seeking admission to the Congregation. And so it was that on June 26, 1957, after having just marked her sixteenth birthday five days earlier, she entered the Adrian Dominican Congregation.
Read more about Sister Joan (PDF)
Memorial gifts may be made to Adrian Dominican Sisters, 1257 East Siena Heights Drive, Adrian, Michigan, 49221.
Sister's Memorial Card (PDF)
Recording of Sister Joan's Vigil Service - After clicking the link, download the recording by clicking on the three dots at the bottom right corner of the screen and choosing "Download." Worship Aid (PDF)
Recording of Sister Joan's Funeral Mass - After clicking the link, download the recording by clicking on the three dots at the bottom right corner of the screen and choosing "Download." Worship Aid (PDF)
Leave your comments and remembrances (if you don't see the comment box below, click on the "Read More" link).
(1933-2023)
On September 10, 1933, a group of children ranging in age from two to thirteen marched down the block in their Crystal Lake, Illinois, neighborhood, carrying a sign referring not to the National Recovery Act that had recently come into being but to a more personally momentous event. The sign read “NRA: ’Nother Riley Arrived.”
That “’ Nother Riley” was Helen Virginia, the future Sister Maria Riley. She was the eighth and final child of William and Helen (McCullough) Riley, joining siblings William, Mary Jane, Fred, Bob, Phil, Jim, and Tom.
All the children attended St. Thomas the Apostle School in Crystal Lake, which the Springfield Dominican Sisters staffed. Apparently, the Springfield Sisters had their eyes on Helen right from the start; Sister Maria wrote in her autobiography – which she titled “A Life Worth Living” – that, according to legend, when she was baptized, she was taken up to the altar of the Blessed Mother by Sister (later Mother) Mary Imelda Sudden of the Springfield congregation. Sister Imelda “prayed that I would become a Dominican,” Sister Maria wrote. “She just forgot to mention which kind.”
Helen’s Adrian Dominican connection was sealed when she enrolled for her high school education at Mount St. Mary Academy in St. Charles, Illinois. After graduating from “the Mount” in 1951, she went on to Barry College (University) in Miami, Florida. She had been there less than one academic year when she began making arrangements to enter the Congregation.
Read more about Sister Maria (PDF)
Recording of Sister Maria's Vigil Service - After clicking the link, download the recording by clicking on the three dots at the bottom right corner of the screen and choosing "Download." Worship Aid (PDF)
Recording of Sister Maria's Funeral Mass - After clicking the link, download the recording by clicking on the three dots at the bottom right corner of the screen and choosing "Download." Worship Aid (PDF)
(1938-2023)
“There are three characteristics I remember as a child that permeated [the] two Italian families from which I have my roots: living in poverty, love of God, and love for one another.”
Sister Mary Catherine Gagliano’s autobiography begins with a summation of the backgrounds of her parents, both of whom were the children of Sicilian immigrants. Alex, her father, was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where his parents had settled and opened a strawberry farm. Her mother, Genevieve, was born in Beloit, Wisconsin; a few years later, her family moved to Freeport, Illinois.
When Alex was nineteen, he, his mother, and his uncle took a riverboat up the Mississippi River in search of a better place for the family to live and somehow ended up in Rockford, Illinois. Twelve years later, at a dance, he met Genevieve, who had come from Freeport to Rockford to visit her sister and brother-in-law. Genevieve was nineteen and Alex was thirty-one, which led both sets of parents to oppose their marriage, but the couple was sure their love would withstand the difference in their ages, and they turned out to be right.
Read more about Sister Mary Catherine (PDF).
Recording of Sister Mary Catherine's Vigil Service - After clicking the link, download the recording by clicking on the three dots at the bottom right corner of the screen and choosing "Download." Worship Aid (PDF)
Recording of Sister Mary Catherine's Funeral Mass - After clicking the link, download the recording by clicking on the three dots at the bottom right corner of the screen and choosing "Download." Worship Aid (PDF)
(1937-2023)
Sister Maria Caridad has been looking directly at me every day from the intercessor card I received last winter to remind me to pray for her especially during this year. In her picture, she has a beautiful smile and a lovely bright pink blouse. Those who knew her best have shared with those who didn’t have that opportunity that she brought brightness in her manner and colorful dress, graciousness and peace in community life, and joyful and competent service to those she taught and tended to in pastoral ministry.
Sister Carol Gross’ homily for the funeral of Sister Maria Caridad Pinuela began with this paragraph describing a woman who, before being seriously impacted by a stroke in 2002, had long been a model of gracious hospitality and compassion in all her ministries.
Guillerma (the future Sister Maria Caridad) Pinuela was born on April 4, 1937, in Zarraga, Iloilo, Philippines, to Juan and Mercedes (Sendino) Pinuela. She was one of four siblings, along with two brothers, Wilfrido and Rogelio, and a sister, Flocerida. Juan died when Guillerma was quite young, so she unfortunately never really got to know him.
She attended Zarraga School and then Sacred Heart Academy and was very active in Catholic Action, Girl Scouts, and the Red Cross and served as a coordinator with the 4-H Club. Right after graduating from Sacred Heart in June 1955, she entered the Dominican Sisters of the Most Holy Rosary in Molo, Iloilo City, Philippines.
Read more about Sister Maria Caridad (PDF).
Vigil and Funeral Recordings
Recording of Sister Maria Caridad's Vigil Service - After clicking the link, you can also download the recording by clicking on the three dots at the bottom right corner of the screen and choosing "Download."
Recording of Sister Maria Caridad's Funeral Mass - After clicking the link, you can also download the recording by clicking on the three dots at the bottom right corner of the screen and choosing "Download."
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