Eight nuns living in a nursing home for sisters in suburban Milwaukee died of complications from COVID-19 last week, including four who died the same day.
The first COVID-19 death in Notre Dame of Elm Grove occurred on December 9, when sisters Rose M. Feess, 91, and Mary Elva Wiesner, 94, died.
Sister Dorothy MacIntyre, 88, died Dec. 11 and Sister Mary Alexius Portz, 96, died Sunday, according to the congregation’s website.
Sisters Cynthia Borman, Joan Emily Kaul, Lillia Langreck and Michael Marie Laux died Monday. Information about their ages was not available as of this writing, even though they were already all 80 or 90 years old.
Sister Mary Elva Wiesner (left), 94, and Sister Michael Marie Laux (right) are two of the eight nuns in a Milwaukee retirement home, who died of COVID-19. Wiesner died Dec. 9 and Laux died Monday
Sister Rose M. Feess (left), 91, died Dec. 9. Sister Joan Emily Kaul (right) was one of four nuns who died Monday
Sister Cynthia Borman (left) and Sister Lillia Langreck (right) also died Monday
Sister Dorothy MacIntyre (left), 88, died on December 11 and Sister Mary Alexius Portz (right), 96, died on Sunday
Notre Dame of Elm Grove had been free of the virus for the past nine months, but the congregation that runs the house discovered on Thanksgiving that one of the approximately 100 sisters living there had tested positive.
Despite the social distancing and other mitigation efforts that already existed, several positive tests were followed, said Sister Debra Marie Sciano, the provincial leader of School Sisters in the Central Pacific province of Notre Dame.
The first death occurred last week and announcements of the death kept coming. Four of the eight nuns died on Monday alone.
“Even though they’re older and most of the sisters who went to God got to the 80s, 90s … we didn’t expect them to go that fast,” Sciano said.
“So it was very difficult for us.”
Sciano said the congregation isolated sisters who tested positive in the same area so they would have no contact with other people.
It is recommended that they stay in the rooms, where meals are brought.
Funerals and memorial services are being broadcast on CCTV.
Sciano declined to say how many other sisters have tested positive, citing residents’ privacy.
The outbreak comes months after similar houses reported several deaths from coronavirus.
This aerial image taken with a drone shows Thursday in the Notre Dame School Provinces in the Central Pacific Province in Elm Grove, Wisconsin, on Thursday
In July, 13 nuns died at a convent near Detroit and seven died at a center for the Maryknoll sisters in New York.
At least six nuns also died at the Convent of Our Lady of the Angels in Greenfield, Wisconsin, a home that provides memorial care to the nuns of the St. Francis School Sisters and the Notre Dame School Sisters.
Sciano said Our Lady of the Angels in Greenfield has not had additional positive cases for many months and the facility still does not allow visitors.
Deena Swank, communications director for the Felecian Sisters of North America, who lost 13 sisters (about one-fifth of the population of the Livonia, Michigan convent), said they have had no additional deaths and wish vaccinate the sisters when possible.
Sciano said he is unaware that anyone in the Notre Dame of Elm Grove house is on a list of vaccine priorities, but administrators are contacting local pharmacies to try to line up vaccines for the future.
Convents share some of the same problems as nursing homes, which are the sector most affected in the United States in terms of deaths from COVID-19.
In many cases, their populations are elderly and they live very close by.
Wisconsin added more than 3,000 positive cases on Thursday, bringing the total to 448,441.
The death toll from the Wisconsin pandemic is now 4,255. Wisconsin officials reported that 59 people died Thursday from COVID-19
Although Wisconsin saw a rise in cases last month, officials said the virus has spread.
Linda Wickstrom, a spokeswoman for the Waukesha County Department of Health and Human Services, said county disease researchers have been working with the facility since the Notre Dame school sisters contacted them in November.
“Given the extreme contagiousness of this virus, it is extremely important that congregation parameters practice basic protocols to stop the spread of the disease,” Wickstrom said.
She said the Notre Dame School Sisters have been disinfecting high-touch surfaces, washing their hands frequently, socially distancing themselves, and wearing appropriate facial coatings.
Sciano said all residents with the virus have been isolated and visitors are not allowed.
The Notre Dame School Sisters established the Notre Dame of Elm Grove house in 1859 to provide an orphanage for children in the area. It later became a home for older and sick sisters, according to her website.
Sciano said all women worked as educators. Some were missionaries. Some were musicians.
Some worked on issues of peace and justice. One was a published poet.
According to the congregation’s website, one was a teacher and director who loved working in the summers on an American Indian reservation in South Dakota.
Another taught in Catholic elementary schools for more than 40 years and worked part-time as a gift shop coordinator at the Elm Grove home.
“We believe that each of these sisters and all the sisters have made a difference in this world,” Sciano said, adding, “I think it’s important that people know this and are committed to it until the end of their lives.” .
He said he hopes others can learn from the sisters’ lives and continue their mission of “maybe making this world a little better place thanks to them.”
The number of Wisconsin cases increased in mid-November and has since been declining.
The state added more than 3,000 positive cases on Thursday, to 448,441.
The death toll from the state’s pandemic is now 4,255. Wisconsin officials reported that 59 people died Thursday from COVID-19.
Wisconsin’s death toll is the 23rd highest in the country and 31st per capita, with 76 deaths per 100,000 people, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.