(1938-2023)

“There are three characteristics I remember as a child that permeated [the] two Italian families from which I have my roots: living in poverty, love of God, and love for one another.”

Sister Mary Catherine Gagliano’s autobiography begins with a summation of the backgrounds of her parents, both of whom were the children of Sicilian immigrants. Alex, her father, was born in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, where his parents had settled and opened a strawberry farm. Her mother, Genevieve, was born in Beloit, Wisconsin; a few years later, her family moved to Freeport, Illinois.

When Alex was nineteen, he, his mother, and his uncle took a riverboat up the Mississippi River in search of a better place for the family to live and somehow ended up in Rockford, Illinois. Twelve years later, at a dance, he met Genevieve, who had come from Freeport to Rockford to visit her sister and brother-in-law. Genevieve was nineteen and Alex was thirty-one, which led both sets of parents to oppose their marriage, but the couple was sure their love would withstand the difference in their ages, and they turned out to be right.

Read more about Sister Mary Catherine (PDF).

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

Sister's Memorial Card (PDF)

 

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(1937-2023)

Sister Maria Caridad has been looking directly at me every day from the intercessor card I received last winter to remind me to pray for her especially during this year. In her picture, she has a beautiful smile and a lovely bright pink blouse. Those who knew her best have shared with those who didn’t have that opportunity that she brought brightness in her manner and colorful dress, graciousness and peace in community life, and joyful and competent service to those she taught and tended to in pastoral ministry.

Sister Carol Gross’ homily for the funeral of Sister Maria Caridad Pinuela began with this paragraph describing a woman who, before being seriously impacted by a stroke in 2002, had long been a model of gracious hospitality and compassion in all her ministries.

Guillerma (the future Sister Maria Caridad) Pinuela was born on April 4, 1937, in Zarraga, Iloilo, Philippines, to Juan and Mercedes (Sendino) Pinuela. She was one of four siblings, along with two brothers, Wilfrido and Rogelio, and a sister, Flocerida. Juan died when Guillerma was quite young, so she unfortunately never really got to know him.

She attended Zarraga School and then Sacred Heart Academy and was very active in Catholic Action, Girl Scouts, and the Red Cross and served as a coordinator with the 4-H Club. Right after graduating from Sacred Heart in June 1955, she entered the Dominican Sisters of the Most Holy Rosary in Molo, Iloilo City, Philippines.

Read more about Sister Maria Caridad (PDF).

 

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

 

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(1934-2023)

Marlene Ann Kuhnlein entered the world at just six and a half months’ gestation on March 2, 1934, and spent the first three weeks of her life in an incubator at Lewis Memorial Maternity Hospital in Chicago. She was the only child of Anthony and Irene (Lowen) Kuhnlein, who lived in the Jackson Park area of Chicago’s South Side.
 
Tony and Irene officially met at a dance in Chicago, although they may have crossed paths earlier since there was a very distant family relationship. Tony worked as a streetcar conductor and, in his younger days, played baseball for the Chicago White Sox, while before their marriage, Irene was a telephone operator. 
 
When Tony was a youngster, he was hit in the head with a baseball, and as an adult, a streetcar accident gave him another head injury. This led to seizures, which ultimately proved fatal; he died in 1937 at the age of thirty-three, when Marlene was just three years old.
 
“Naturally, I have regretted never really knowing my father,” Sister Marlene wrote in her autobiography. “I have always believed that my vocation was a gift that God bestowed on me due to my father’s prayers for me before His throne.”

Read more about Sister Marlene (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).

(1928-2023)

Mary, the world is a better place because you graced it with your presence as a woman of faith who was committed to education as a path to peace and justice among all people.

Sister Rosemary Asaro, the Holy Rosary Chapter assistant, was speaking of Sister Mary Beaubien, for whose wake Sister Rosemary was preaching the eulogy and from whose autobiography Sister Rosemary had just read aloud this sentence: “Education is the means by which peace and justice are effectively accomplished.”

Mary Josephine was the third of five surviving children born to Oliver and Clara (Sierin) Beaubien, following Cecelia and Joseph and before Margaret and Robert. Oliver and Clara’s first child, a boy, died at just four days old.

Oliver was born in Monroe County, Michigan, while Clara was born in Paulding County, Ohio. The two met because Clara came to work for Oliver’s mother, a widow after the Beaubien family moved to Paulding County. Oliver was twenty-nine, and Clara was nineteen.

The couple farmed a tract of land in Paulding County. Early on in their marriage, they took in three children whose parents had died or could not care for them, and so their oldest daughter, Cecelia, was born with a ready-made group of brothers.

Read more about Sister Mary (PDF).

 

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

Sister's Memorial Card (PDF)

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