(1918-2017)

Even as a child, she loved playing school and being the teacher.
She wanted to be like the Dominicans who taught her in school.

This line from Sister Mary Adelaide’s life story, written down in 2004 by Sister Jodie Screes, illustrates exactly why Sister Adelaide’s entry into the Congregation came when she was just sixteen years old. Her sister Rita, two years older than she, entered along with her.

Sister Adelaide was born October 11, 1918, in Detroit to Henry and Mary Agnes (Hickey) Eiden. Henry worked in the “dead letter” office at the Post Office, while Mary Agnes, who was affectionately referred to as Mae, took care of the home and the couple’s four children. Besides Rita and Adelaide, there were James, the eldest, and Ann Dolores, the youngest. In her biography, Sister Adelaide remembered her father as an “exceptionally peaceful man” and her mother as “a good, kind and very organized woman who handled the business affairs of the household.”

The family attended St. Theresa’s, where the children were taught by the Adrian Dominicans in the parish school. When Adelaide was a junior, she asked her mother if she would care if Adelaide entered the convent — at which point Rita added that she wished to do the same thing. Mae took the question to Henry, whose response was that the two were quite young but if this was what they wanted, it was all right with him.

Read more about Sister Adelaide (pdf)

Memorial gifts may be made to Adrian Dominican Sisters, 1257 East Siena Heights Drive, Adrian, Michigan, 49221.

(1936-2017)

When Sister Mary Ann Zakrajsek’s family and her fellow Adrian Dominican Sisters filed into Holy Rosary Chapel over the course of two days for her Vigil service and then funeral, they were greeted by a print placed prominently on an easel next to the ambo.

The print, which Sister Mary Ann had brought with her when she returned to Adrian from Cleveland, Ohio, just one month earlier, was of a painting by Christian artist Joann Reed titled, “Come Unto Me.” With its depiction of Christ’s arms reaching toward the viewer, it sustained Sister Mary Ann in life and through her last days.

Sister Mary Ann was born in Cleveland on January 10, 1936, to Matt and Antonia Perko Zakrajsek, both immigrants from Slovenia, in Yugoslavia. Matt worked for the Cleveland Wire Cloth and Manufacturing Company, while Antonia took care of home and family.

The Perkos had eleven children in all, three of whom died in early childhood. Sister Mary Ann was a twin to Richard, and her birth was apparently a source of great excitement, given that the other surviving children in the family at that point were all boys. At Sister Mary Ann’s Vigil service, her Chapter Prioress, Sister Mary Jane Lubinski, related a memory told to her by Sister Mary Ann’s cousin, Adrian Dominican Sister Miriam Joseph Lekan, who was thirteen at the time of Mary Ann’s birth: “Older brothers came running down the street announcing ‘We have twins! And one of them is a girl!’”

Read more about Sister Mary Ann (PDF)

Memorial gifts may be made to Adrian Dominican Sisters, 1257 East Siena Heights Drive, Adrian, Michigan, 49221.

(1944-2017)

When I was a novice at morning meditation one day, I read a great quote that has been with me all these years. It reads, ‘”I may go this way only once. If there is some good that I may do, let me do it now, for I may never go this way again.” I have tried to live by this – And what a life it has given me.

So ended the autobiography of Sister Christine Ostrowski, who died November 23, 2017, at the age of seventy-three.

Sister Christine was born August 22, 1944, in Detroit, to Leonard and Helen Wolkiewicz Ostrowski. She and her mother lived with her grandparents in the largely Polish enclave of Hamtramck until her father returned from service in the Army, then the family moved first to the east side of Detroit and then, in 1948, to the west side of the city. 

Leonard worked as a Detroit bus driver and Helen took care of home and family. “My parents were faithful Catholics, loving, hard-working and fun,” Christine wrote in her autobiography.

Read more about Sister Christine (pdf)

Memorial gifts may be made to Adrian Dominican Sisters, 1257 East Siena Heights Drive, Adrian, Michigan, 49221. Funeral arrangements are being handled by Anderson-Marry Funeral Home, Adrian.

Leave your comments and remembrances (if you don't see the comment box below, click on the "Read More" link).

(1944-2017)

Patricia Jean Seckel was born December 7, 1944 in Detroit, the middle child of seven.  Her parents, Robert and Ruth LaBell Seckel, lived in Detroit their entire lives. Both of her parents worked hard to provide for their family. 

Patty attended Our Lady Queen of Peace School and Madison High School, graduating in 1964. She felt a calling to work in the healthcare field. She worked for more than 25 years in nursing homes and with mentally and physically challenged children and adults.  

After her father died very suddenly in 1981, Patty lived with her mother in Clinton Township, Michigan. She cared for her mother and worked full time in nursing homes, urgent care facilities, and doctor’s offices. After taking classes for years, Patty graduated from the Carnegie Institute in 1988, earning a certificate as a medical assistant.

Read more about Patty (pdf) 

Memorial gifts may be made to Adrian Dominican Sisters, 1257 East Siena Heights Drive, Adrian, Michigan, 49221. 

Leave your comments and remembrances (if you don't see the comment box below, click on the "Read More" link).