Our Lady of Angels Nurses Hold Meeting At Joliet Library Wednesday Night
Nurses are reaching out to the community to help keep Our Lady of Angels open. A fundraiser will be held on November 30th at the Joliet Public Library on Black Road at 6:30pm. The meeting is open to the public. Family members of OLA patients are expected to attend. As first reported on WJOL in October, OLA was said to be closing at the start of the year. Residents were not told officially until a few weeks later. Meanwhile, the Sisters of St. Francis that currently reside there were quietly told they would be moving.
Meanwhile, Sister Jean Bessette, president of Sisters of St. Francis of Mary Immaculate, and chair of the Board for Our Lady of Angels Retirement Home spoke with WJOL on October 25th and committed to giving residents 6 months notice if OLA were to close. But on November 10th, Sister Jean made it official and OLA would be closing February 28th, 2023.
Listen to a family member, Kate, of a resident at OLA who says three months is not enough time considering the nuns have already secured many open rooms at various local nursing homes.
Sister Jean Bessette, president of Sisters of St. Francis of Mary Immaculate statement sent on November 10th, 2022.
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.
In an interview with WJOL Sister Jeanne committed to giving residents 6 months notice. Today’s announcement falls short of that timeline.
To hear her initial interview on WJOL click Here
