(1919-2018)

The first postulant to enter the Adrian Dominicans from Albuquerque, New Mexico, came in the person of 18-year-old Marie Concepta Garcia.

Born August 15, 1919, Marie Concepta was the daughter of Edwardo and Ramoncita Luna Apodaca. Edwardo died before Marie was born, a victim of the flu epidemic that swept around the world during that time. Ramoncita remarried when Marie was about two years old, and her new husband, Charles Garcia, adopted the little girl. In all, four children came into the Garcia family, including a brother, William, and two sisters, Marceline (Lena) and Rita. Ramoncita worked as a schoolteacher and Charles as an inspector for the Santa Fe Railroad.

Read more about Sister Marie Amada (pdf)

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

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(1921-2018)

Out of the thousands of young women who have arrived at the Motherhouse over the decades intending to become Adrian Dominican Sisters, only one is known to have done so hiding on the floor of a car: Kathleen Donnelly.

As she related the story in her autobiography, she was sixteen years old when Mother Gerald Barry visited Florida, where the Donnelly family lived, and Mother Gerald brought her back on the train with her. A man met the train at the station in Toledo, Ohio, to drive Mother Gerald to the Motherhouse, and when they got there

I was told by Mother Gerald to hide on the floor as she had not told anyone I was coming. Many sisters and postulants and novices were waiting outside for her when she arrived. After they departed I was told to get out of the car. Mother Gerald had told no one that she was bringing a new postulant with her and wanted to surprise the Sisters, especially Sr. Mary Philip (Ryan).

Kathleen Donnelly was born October 7, 1921, in West Palm Beach, Florida. Her father, Charles Henry Donnelly, was a professional baseball player for several teams and became an umpire when his playing days were over. When he was hurt during a ballgame in Toledo, he was taken to the hospital where he met a young, pretty nurse named Kathleen O’Hare. The two ended up eloping, and when Charles was sent by his ball club to find a winter practice facility and chose West Palm Beach, the couple settled there.

(1924-2018)

This was a world

-of Nancy Drew and Therese of Lisieux;
-of Cardinal Mundelein and Father P.J. McGuire;
-of President Roosevelt and Blessed Martin de Porres;
-of chance books and St. Patrick’s Day plays;
-of novenas and May crownings;
-of diagramming participles and memorizing poetry.

This was how Sister Dorothy Folliard, in her life story, remembered her childhood in the Chicago of the 1930s. She was the second oldest of five children – four girls and one boy – born to Michael and Margaret (O’Connor) Folliard, Irish immigrants from County Roscommon and County Kerry, respectively, who met in Chicago and married in 1921. Michael was a street car operator, while Margaret oversaw home and family.

Originally, the Folliards lived in St. Columbanus Parish, but when Sister Dorothy was two years old the family moved to St. Laurence Parish, where they lived next door to the convent and could hear the prayers and laughter of the Adrian Dominican Sisters there. “We went to the store with them as ‘companion.’ We loved them in their black cloaks and in their colorful house dresses for Friday night cleaning. We thrived in their school across the street,” Sister Dorothy recalled.

Read more about Sister Dorothy (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).

(1928-2018)

Although losing my identity as an Edmonds Dominican Sister was a death experience, it was quickly replaced by my resurrection/new life experience of becoming an Adrian Dominican Sister. I have not lost my community, but gained a larger one!

These words were written in Sister Patrice Eilers’ annals for 2004-2005, a year after the merger between the Adrian and Edmonds Dominican communities took effect. And although Sister Patrice spent the rest of her life in Washington – the state where almost all of her seventy years of religious life took place – her writings indicate a constant sense of the new community that becoming an Adrian Dominican Sister had brought her.

Patricia Mary Eilers was born on April 24, 1928, in Seattle, to John (also known as Jim) Fred Eilers and Marie Ethel (Anderson) Eilers. John was born in Le Mars, Iowa, and grew up on a farm in South Dakota. Marie was born in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and from the age of six lived in Seattle.

Read more about Sister Patrice (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).