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(1937-2023)
Adrian Dominican Associate Maria Theresa Geryk, 85, of Waterford, Michigan, died at her home on April 4, 2023, three years after a diagnosis of advanced ovarian cancer.
Born on August 22, 1937, in Warsaw, Poland, Maria described her childhood as happy, noting that she felt safe and protected by her parents and extended family despite the conflict happening directly outside her home. After years being educated at home by her mother, a Montessori teacher, Maria was well prepared to enter school once it became possible again after the war.
She attended the University of Warsaw, earned a master's degree in English, and received a grant to pursue postgraduate studies in the United States at the University of Wisconsin at Madison, where she met her husband, Robert Geryk. Maria returned to Warsaw after her year of study, Robert traveling to join her soon thereafter, and they married and had their first child.
Returning to the United States in the late 1960s, Maria and her family settled in Michigan, where she and Robert both went to work at SS. Cyril and Methodius Seminary and St. Mary's College. Maria became a naturalized U.S. citizen after the birth of her second child, and while teaching English literature, drama, and journalism, continued her studies by pursuing a degree in theology. This led to her leaving her position at St. Mary's and accepting the position of Pastoral Associate at St. Benedict Church in Waterford, Michigan, a role she held until her retirement in 2009. Maria earned a Doctor of Ministry degree from the Ecumenical Theological Seminary in 1998.
Maria became an Associate with the Adrian Dominican Sisters in 1984 and regularly participated in Mission Group meetings and Chapter Assemblies. She was a member of the Truth Seekers Mission Group. Maria often spoke of how her participation as an Associate provided her with a sense of mission and the gift of a supportive community that nurtured her spiritual growth. She credits Sisters and Associates with her pursuit of a position in full-time parish ministry.
Maria was preceded in death by her parents, Seweryn Michalski and Janina Michalska, and her husband, Robert (January 14, 2023). She leaves behind her son Bruce, daughter-in-law Lorie, daughter Maya and grandchildren Zofia and Renata Packard. She is mourned and will be missed by her many friends and her extended family.
Maria was buried in Easthampton, Massachusetts, in late April 2023 along with her husband. A celebration of both their lives will be held in Michigan later in the spring of 2023.
Maria certainly exemplified living the Dominican Charism in her life. She was a person of prayer, committed to study and learning. She loved being in community and she considered her life a vocation to serve others.
We entrust Maria T Geryk to God’s loving care. May her memory be a blessing.
(1940 - 2023)
I have been most fortunate throughout my religious life to have been supported by a loving community. In community I have found a bond so strong that I cannot imagine living without it … When I appear near the throne of God, I will, in spirit, take all of you with me. Sister Rosalie Bulanda, whose autobiography ends with this paragraph, first became part of the wider Adrian Dominican community as a prep student at the age of fourteen. When she died on March 27, 2023, she was in her sixty-sixth year as an Adrian Dominican Sister. Born Rosalie Ann Sytar, she entered the world on March 19, 1940, in Aurora, Illinois. Her parents, Michael and Dolores (Senneke) Sytar, divorced soon after she was born, and her maternal grandparents became her legal guardians.
Read more about Sister Rosalie.
Memorial gifts may be made to Adrian Dominican Sisters, 1257 East Siena Heights Drive, Adrian, Michigan, 49221.
Sister's Prayer Card (PDF)
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(1941 - 2023)
Mary Kay lived the Gospel and did what Jesus taught her to do. Her love of neighbor overflowed into her actions. She was not afraid to show her love and those with whom she associated knew that. They knew they were loved.
These words were part of Sister Maria Goretti Browne’s memorial Mass homily for her friend Sister Mary Kay Drouin, who served the people of Beattyville, Kentucky, for some thirty years as director of Resurrection Home, a shelter for abused women and their children.
Mary Katherine Drouin was born on July 17, 1941, to Alden and Rita (Gorski) Drouin. The family lived in tiny Hubbell, Michigan, in the middle of Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula; Mary Kay was born in the hospital in nearby Laurium.
Before Mary Kay was born, Alden and Rita had two sons who both died in infancy. Another son, Skip, was born five years after she was.
She spent her kindergarten year in public school and then attended St. Cecilia School. With the region’s location in the far north of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, snow came heavily and often in the wintertime, and Sister Mary Kay recalled in her life story that there were times the snow was as high as her home’s second story.
Read more about Sister Mary Katherine (PDF).
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(1928 - 2023)
Of the approximately 2,800 people who called the village of Newberry, Michigan, home in the mid-1940s to early 1950s, three of them became Adrian Dominican Sisters. Sister Paul James Villemure was the second of them, after Sister Nadine Foley. (Sister Cora Campbell was the third.) Lois Marie Villemure was born November 28, 1928, to Joseph and Alma (Benard) Villemure. Joseph, the town’s postmaster, brought two boys, Evar and Robert, into his marriage to Alma in 1920. Joseph’s first wife, Eva, had died in 1919, just days after giving birth to a stillborn baby. After Joseph and Alma married, twelve more children came into the family: Philip, Phyllis, Marcella, Theresa, Lois, Joseph, Charles, Irene, Matthew, Thomas, Paul James (who died in infancy), and Peter. From an early age, Lois knew she wanted to be a teacher, inspired by the excellent education she received in the Newberry public school system. Her first contact with the Adrian Dominican Sisters came through the catechetical center several of the sisters operated at her parish, St. Gregory, but it was due to her later time at Siena Heights College (University) that she truly knew she was being called to religious life.
Read more about Sister Paul James (PDF)
Our Adrian Dominican cemetery with its circular headstones is a beautiful place of rest for women who gave their lives in service to God — and a peaceful place for contemplation and remembrance.
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