(1931-2023)

When James Joseph Carroll’s father came to the U.S. from Canada in 1903 after his wife’s death, he did so with $750 to his name and five children – James being one of them – under the age of 10.

By 1924, James had already risen from his humble beginnings to become co-founder and President of the Lincoln Mutual Casualty Co. He and his wife, Veronica (whose maiden name, interestingly, was also Carroll), married in 1927 and over the next seven years had four children, one of whom was the future Sister Barbara Jean Carroll.

Barbara Jean was born on April 16, 1931, in Detroit, following older brothers Edward and Charles and three years before John, the youngest. At the time she was born, the family lived in St. Agnes Parish on the city’s near west side; then, in the autumn of 1937, the family moved into a flat in nearby St. Mary of Redford.

That December, Veronica was returning from shopping when she slipped on the basement stairway and fell, a tragedy witnessed by little Barbara Jean. Veronica died shortly thereafter. Less than two years later, James married his longtime secretary, Ann.

By that time the Carrolls were living in St. Clare of Montefalco Parish in Grosse Pointe Park, Michigan. Barbara Jean attended the parish school, where she was taught by Dominican Sisters from Columbus, Ohio. “The Augustinian Fathers and Dominican Sisters were very good to us and for us,” she said in her life story.

Read more about Sister Barbara (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).

(1925-2023)

Bristol, Quebec, Canada, was the birthplace of Mary Helen McCann, the future Sister Kathleen Therese, who entered the world on December 2, 1925, as the first-born child of Edmund and Mary Catherine (Bennett) McCann.

Edmund and Mary Catherine were both born in Quebec, and Ed went on to become a carpenter while Mary Catherine worked at a hotel in Quyon. The couple moved to Detroit after they married, but when it was time for Mary Helen to be born her mother went back to her family’s farm for the birth because her own mother was a midwife. Mary Helen was born in the same farmhouse as her mother had been, and possibly in the same room.

Mary Catherine and her new baby headed back home when Mary Helen was two months old. Over time, six more children came into the McCann family: Theresa, Michael, Betty, Beatrice, Lois, and Donald.

At some point along the way, the family moved to nearby Royal Oak (a section of the city which today is part of Madison Heights) and then went back to Detroit, where they lived in St. Dominic Parish. “Since some of those years were the Depression years I’m sure my parents had a hard time managing and I know now we were poor, but growing up I didn’t know it,” Sister Kathleen Therese wrote in her autobiography.

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

Read more about Sister Kathleen (PDF).

Sister's Memorial Card (PDF)

 

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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)

 

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