Nearly Half A Dozen Nuns Already Moved Out Of OLA Ahead Of Official Announcement

It’s official, Our Lady of Angels is closing for good. As first reported on WJOL on October 18th, the 60 year old Retirement Home will be closing permenantely on February 28th, 2023. In a statement by Sister Jeanne Bessette, President of Sisters of St. Francis of Mary Immaculate and Chair of the Board for Our Lady of Angels Retirement Home, “Following long and deliberate consideration, we regret to announce that Our Lady of Angels Retirement Home will close by February 28, 2023. This difficult decision is made for financial reasons alone. Put simply, despite our best efforts, OLA has been and will continue to lose a substantial amount of money, and we can no longer continue to operate as a stand-alone long term care facility.”

Sister Jeanne confirming to WJOL that five sisters from Our Lady of Angels have already moved to new retirement homes.

Three to a memory care facility (OLA does not provide memory care).
Two sisters to assisted living to help in pastoral support of the sisters in memory care.

OLA would have no funds available to assist other residents with moves.

The Village at OLA which includes those free standing homes, remains under the direct ownership and management of the Sisters of St. Francis, with no plans to change that arrangement.

Our Lady of Angels Retirement Home was born out of the mission of the Joliet Franciscan Sisters to meet the unmet needs of people. The land at 1201 Wyoming Avenue on Joliet’s west side is owned by the Sisters and ground was broken on May 1st, 1960. The first residents began moving into the new facility in January of 1962. OLA became the gold standard for rehabilitation and long term care and independent living within the Joliet community. But the building at Wyoming has fallen into disrepair over the years. Problems with elevators not working or broken dishwashers. An outside management team has been running the day-to-day operations and when food service wasn’t available, they had to order in breakfast from McDonald’s. Residents were eating off of paper plates and it’s been hard to keep staff.

Statement by Sister Jeanne:

Following long and deliberate consideration, we regret to announce that Our Lady of Angels Retirement Home will close by February 28, 2023. This difficult decision is made for financial reasons alone. Put simply, despite our best efforts, OLA has been and will continue to lose a substantial amount of money, and we can no longer continue to operate as a stand-alone long term care facility.

OLA’s management company and administrative team are working on behalf of residents to assist them and their families in finding new homes to care for their various levels of need. We are also committed to helping employees find new positions in other long term care facilities. We will be working with each family during this transition. Our hope is to have each resident transitioned to a new home by or before February 28, 2023.

The Sisters of St. Francis of Mary Immaculate are grateful to the people of Joliet who have entrusted the care of family members to OLA for the last 60 years. We are also grateful to the
dedicated women and men, as well as our own sisters, who have cared for our residents in every department at OLA to deliver quality living and healthcare. We will work to do our best  to ensure a smooth transition for our residents, families and staff.

To hear WJOL’s interview with Sister Jeanne click here