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The Lenawee County Health Department and a local pharmacy vaccinated 186 sisters and 54 workers at the Adrian home Jan. 15. (Photos: Instagram)
Nine retired nuns at the Dominican Life Center retirement home in Adirian, 75 miles southwest of Detroit, died in January of Covid complications, The New York Times reports.
“It’s numbing,” Sister Patricia Siemen, leader of the religious order, tells the paper. “We had six women die in 48 hours.”
Several victims at the 130-acre Adrian Dominican Sisters campus had been nurses or teachers. Others had dedicated decades of their lives to religious service. More than 200 sisters live at the Lenawee County site, where the average age is 83.
The deaths came although administrators tried to avoid a coronavirus outbreak. Residents were kept in isolation, visitors were prohibited and masks were required by everyone on campus.
Congresswoman Debbie Dingell, D-Dearborn, pays tribute on Facebook by recalling her years at St. Mary’s Catholic School in St. Clair, "taught by the Adrian Dominican nuns."
"As funerals are being planned," she posts, "another 13 Dominican sisters were in quarantine Friday. I am praying for them and thanking them for all they did for so many of us."
