Sister Geraldine Megel
1930-2011

In her autobiography, Sister Geraldine wrote, “As I look back on my life, I realize how blessed I have been.” She also wrote:

When I look in the mirror these days, I don’t doubt the fact that I am getting old. . . . Was I ever that little girl that knelt at her Mother’s knees with my brother Dave and my sisters Sue and Ann to say our night prayers? Was I ever that little girl that climbed trees and jumped from the garage in the back yard? My home on Wisconsin Street in Detroit is gone now, torn down, and the memories of the little girl that grew up there so long ago seem like a dream.

Geraldine Frances Megel, better known as Gerry, was born to William Leo and Frieda (Miller) Megel on June 10, 1930. She was the fifth of their nine surviving children. Her siblings were Margaret, Joan, Jimmy, Betty, Ann, David, Suzanne, and Tim. The family lived in Detroit, just a short distance from St. Brigid Parish School, where the Adrian Dominican Sisters taught.

Both parents were from Ohio. William Leo Megel, usually called Leo, was from Piqua. His grandmother, who spoke only German, lived with the family, so he learned to speak German at an early age. His father owned a grocery store and meat market, and Leo left school after eighth grade to help. Frieda Miller was from Newport. She left school after fifth grade, and later worked in a candy factory and a cigar factory. Leo and Frieda were married in Sidney, Ohio, where their three oldest children were born. After they moved to Detroit, Leo Megel opened Megel’s Meat Market and Grocery Store. In his later years, he served as Director of Alexandrine Home for Men. Although there were difficulties during the Great Depression, the family survived well.

All of the Megel children attended St. Brigid Elementary School. Gerry’s vocation was born during those years. Her mother often voiced the wish that one of her daughters would enter religious life, and Gerry took her words to heart. “Many missionaries came to speak at our assemblies, and . . . I wanted to be a missionary and save the pagan babies in the foreign lands.”

She attended Immaculata High School with the IHM (Immaculate Heart of Mary) Sisters, where she worked hard and included typewriting and shorthand among her classes. After school and on Saturdays she helped in her father’s store, and also worked with her mother in the care of the house. World War II was being waged, and her older siblings were serving in the military. Her desire to enter religious life had never died, although it had changed somewhat, and her parents were delighted when she told them. She graduated from high school in June 1948.

On February 2, 1949, she became a postulant in Adrian. With her group, she received the habit and her religious name, Sister Madonna Leo, on August 4, and professed her first vows on August 5, 1950. That same year her sister Betty also entered and was known as Sister Ann Timothy. She, however, was a member of the Congregation for only seven years. She died in 1957. Suzanne entered later, remained for fifteen years, then left and married. One of the Megel boys was ordained a priest, but left the priesthood in the 1970s and married.

Almost immediately after profession, Sister Gerry was on her way to Cleveland, Ohio, where for the next year she taught second grade at St. Lawrence School. The next three years were in Maywood, Illinois, where she ministered with primary children at St. James School.

The next nineteen years were in Michigan. In 1954 she again taught primary children at Precious Blood in Detroit, staying for seven years. In July 1956, as a result of summer study, Siena Heights College (now University) awarded her a bachelor’s degree with a major in English and minors in French and math. She was transferred to Resurrection in Lansing in 1961, where for three years she taught in the middle grades. In 1964 she taught at Sacred Heart in Hudson.

When she received her appointment for 1967, she found that she was assigned as principal at Sacred Heart in Caro, Michigan. The school closed in 1970, but she remained in Caro as teacher trainer and religious education coordinator at Tuscola Inter-Personal Religious Center. During that time, in July 1968, Siena Heights College awarded her a master’s degree in education as a result of study during the summers. Sister Nancyann Turner sent an email for the wake, which included:

Back before the 1968 Renewal Chapter, I was so inspired by the joy and leadership that Sisters Gerry and Shirley Levesque gave to our renewal efforts. There were many meetings (some underground), and she was one of the strong, positive, committed forces behind the 1968 Chapter discussions and changes.

In 1973, Sister Gerry moved to Ridgeland, South Carolina, where she taught at Jasper School and lived with Sisters Shirley Levesque and Ellen Robertson in a mobile home. During that year, their home burned. Sister Gerry studied at the University of St. Thomas in Houston, Texas, during the summers, where she made many good friends, including Sister Attracta Kelly. In July 1974, she received a master’s degree in religious education, and in August the bishop of the Charleston Diocese invited her and Sister Shirley to minister in the diocesan office in Columbia. She served there for four years, as elementary coordinator and then as director of adult education. “We traveled all over the state training catechists and conducting conferences and workshops.”

She became very conscious of the homeless and the poor. As a result, in 1978 she began working at Providence Home in Columbia. In 1979, after receiving a certificate in clinical pastoral education from Columbia Area Mental Health Association, she founded Family Shelter, a home for destitute families, for families in crisis. She served as executive director of this shelter for six years. She wrote, “The Family Shelter in Columbia is still responding today to the needs of the homeless families in South Carolina.” Also during this time, she was asked to serve as co-director of formation of the Southern Dominican Province of Men. Having a woman as part of the men’s formation team was a new concept. Some of the Dominican novices helped out at the Family Center.

In 1985, she returned to Michigan and took a Clinical Pastoral Education program at Harper Hospital in Detroit, while gaining some experience as a chaplain at Grace Hospital and earning a second certificate in Clinical Education. She then returned to the South, and served for four years as religious education director at St. Paul Parish in Greensboro, North Carolina. There again she lived with Sister Shirley Levesque. In 1990 and 1991 she underwent periods of mourning when her mother and Sister Shirley died. She left St. Paul Parish in 1992, and accepted a position as administrator at Romero House Refugee Center in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. There were some problems, and she left in April 1994 and spent three months in transition.

Beginning in August 1994, she served for six years as executive director of The Caring Place in Lebanon, Kentucky. This was a new shelter for abused women and children, and during her time there she established the program and wrote grants for funding. She also took time to visit the Lands of Dominic. She left The Caring Place in 2000, took a year’s sabbatical and spent another year in transition. During this time, she traveled to Alaska with her sister and niece and spent several months at Manna House in Concordia, Kansas.

In response to an article in the Congregational Bulletin that spoke of need for sisters in Africa, she traveled to South Africa and volunteered her services at an orphanage for children with AIDS. After four months, she began ministering in Kroonstad. The project in which she took part was called Jala Peo, which means “Sowing the Seed.”

“Much of my time was spent in working in the HIV/AIDS portion of the Jala Peo Trust Project,” Sister Gerry wrote. She established an AIDS Interagency Organization and published a directory and booklet for organizations and others giving care to those suffering from AIDS. She also visited and distributed food to the sick, conducted exercise and art classes and other activities. She left this position in 2005 and returned to an apartment in Warren, Michigan.

In 2006, at the invitation of Sister Attracta Kelly, she moved to Raleigh, North Carolina, and volunteered her services in a soup kitchen, interviewed needy families, shopped for the elderly and helped them in other ways. She also helped for a few months in New Orleans, Louisiana, after the hurricane that left so many people in sad straits. When Sister Attracta was elected Prioress of the Congregation in 2010, Sister Gerry returned to Warren, Michigan. In June 2011, ill with cancer, she moved into the Dominican Life Center/Maria in Adrian. Within a short time, on August 31, God took her to eternity. She was eighty-one years of age.

Sister Gerry requested a green burial. A memorial Mass was held for her in St. Catherine Chapel on September 2. Father Robert Kelly, OP, Motherhouse chaplain, was the presider and Sister Attracta Kelly, Prioress of the Congregation, was the homilist. Among her remarks, she praised her friend.

Sister Gerry was fearless because she trusted and she surely believed that, like Jesus in today’s Gospel, she was sent to bring the Good News to the poor, liberty to captives, sight to the blind, and to set the downtrodden free no matter where, no matter her age, in homeless shelters in South Carolina and Kentucky, in refugee settlements in Canada, and even after she turned seventy in townships of South Africa, and finally in soup kitchens in Raleigh where at this very moment every Friday she prepared for, welcomed, and served hundreds of the poor, the hungry, and the homeless. While her co-workers there would all love to be here with us today, they told us they are most surely with us in the Spirit.

Following the beautiful liturgy, attended by many family members and Dominican Sisters, Sister Gerry was laid to rest in the Congregational cemetery. In the afternoon, a remembrance service was held in the Rose Room. Sister Mary Priniski, Prioress of Mid-Atlantic Chapter, summarized Sister Gerry’s life and ministry. She spoke of Sister Gerry’s time in Adrian.

Since she has been here at Maria, she has had visits from sisters and brothers, from in-laws, from nieces and nephews, from grand-nieces and -nephews. They all gave her life in these last months. The Sisters, too, and our co-workers were regular visitors to Sister Gerry’s room.

Brian Pierce, OP, of the Southern Dominican Province, sent an e-mail. Part of it is quoted here:

Sisters Gerry and Shirley Levesque were like two islands of sisterly support and encouragement for me and my two classmates (Bruce Schultz, OP, and Chris Eggleton, OP) during our novitiate year in South Carolina. . . . Sister Gerry actually had the title of Associate Novice Director. . . . Last month I had the great blessing of being able to spend an hour with her in her room at Adrian. I will remember and treasure that conversation for a long, long time.  … Thanks for sharing Sisters Gerry and Shirley with us.

Sylvia Kelly also sent an e-mail. She wrote in part: “At times like this I have no words—only feelings. A part of Sister Gerry will always be with me. All who knew her must feel the same way, too.”

Sue Kresse wrote of “the pain and separation from our dear Gerry.” She described her thankfulness for “the vivid picture that I have of the [Adrian Dominican] beautiful campus,” including the cemetery. “I have fond memories of walking this peaceful area with Sister Gerry. She was so very proud of all of this . . . so happy to be an Adrian Dominican.”

Sister Marilyn Winter said in part:

When I was in Richmond and she was in Greenville, we were part of the same Mission Group and I got to know her then. Later, when I was Mission Chapter Prioress, I was able to talk with her when she was thinking of going to Africa. When she saw a need, she walked in and took care of it, whether she had a right to do so or whether she had resources. She’d get them somehow.

There were other short anecdotes and memories told by members of the family who were present: her brothers Tim and Dave, nieces and nephews. An Associate also spoke, and Sister Mary Beaubien remembered the time in Africa, and how Sister Gerry sang in the choir and wrote grants, among her many other accomplishments.

In her autobiography, Sister Gerry wrote of the “great homecoming” that she had when she returned from Africa. The grief of those who love her can be assuaged when they think of her wonderful homecoming in eternity, where she is united with God and reunited with the members of her beloved family who preceded her.