By Ruthie Robison
DURANT — A downpour of rain didn’t dampen a dedication and blessing ceremony of a monument to honor the lives of Sisters Margaret Held, SCN, and Paula Merrill, SSSF.
A crowd of about 100 gathered Saturday, May 20, in Durant’s Liberty Park and weathered the Saturday afternoon storm to pay tribute to the two Sisters, who both made a lasting impact on the community in which they resided for the last 15 years of their lives.
Merrill, who was with the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth based in Nazareth, Kentucky, and Held, who was with the School Sisters of St. Francis based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, were slain in their Durant home on Aug. 25, 2016. They were both 68.
The two nurse practitioners worked at Lexington Medical Clinic and attended St. Thomas Catholic Church in Lexington, located about 10 miles west from their home.
“It was wonderful to see so many people come here from around the country,” said the Rev. Greg Plata, OFM, pastor of St. Thomas, who led the service. “Even though it was a horrible day weather-wise, that did not deter from the joy of the day that we come together. I think that every time I go that way, (the monument) will be a place for me to stop and say a prayer and be thankful to God for these two amazing women. It’s just a great way to remember our sisters.”
Some of those attending the event included Durant city leaders, family members and longtime friends of Held and Merrill, staff members and patients of Lexington Medical Clinic and parishioners of St. Thomas.
The dedication service featured speakers Durant Mayor Tasha Davis and Bishop Joseph Kopacz, songs, prayer, Scripture readings and the unveiling of the monument.
To start the event, Davis welcomed those attending.
“I know it is a sad event that we’re here, but they were such wonderful people,” she said. “The Bible teaches us to give honor where honor is due, and we can all agree that it is befitting to honor these two ladies who left an everlasting mark on the city of Durant and Holmes County as a whole.”
Before blessing the monument, Kopacz spoke of the sisters’ service to their communities.
“Just as from the heavens the rain and the snow come down and accomplish what they’re sent to do, so Sister Paula and Sister Margaret came to these communities, accomplished God’s mission and returned to life fulfilled in heaven,” he said.
 After the unveiling, several people in attendance shared sentiments about Held and Merrill.
Mary James, who worked with the Sisters at Lexington Medical Clinic, said that she and the other staff members at the clinic were truly blessed to have known both Held and Merrill.
“They took me under their wings, and we became family,” she said. “The sisters’ angelic presence was so great. We miss them daily. … Whenever we get a little down or teary-eyed, we remember these words, ‘Let love win.’ If the sisters were here today, they would probably say something like this: ‘There’s no love like forgiveness, and there’s no forgiveness without love.'”
Held’s brother, James Held, spoke of his sister’s love for the people of Durant and Holmes County.
“We always tried to convince her to come back to the Midwest,” he said. “We never could convince her to come back, and we missed her. She loved you so much, and she stayed and she gave her life for all of you.”
James said that the Held family has felt terrible pain since his sister’s tragic death, but he also knows that the pain felt by the members of the Mississippi community where she touched so many lives must be equally as bad.
“Now that she has passed we have our sorrow, but we think of your sorrow,” he said. “You saw her every day. She touched your lives on a daily basis, and now you have that gap that Margaret’s gone, and you’re reminded of that all the time.”
Merrill’s family was unable to attend the ceremony. Connie Blake, a longtime friend of Merrill’s and an associate with the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, spoke on behalf of the family.
“Sister Paula was my friend for over 49 years,” she said. “One thing she said she always wanted to do was to follow what we’ve all been asked to do, and that’s to love one another and to care for one another, and indeed that was her life’s work.”
Blake said she and Merrill’s family are humbled and overwhelmed by the outpouring of love and support they continue to receive.
Held and Merrill “would be astonished and somewhat embarrassed by all of this attention,” she said. “Paula and Margaret were quiet, humble and simple women, who lived out their passion to serve the undeserved in Mississippi.”
Durant Alderwoman Carolyn Riley led a grassroots effort to memorialize Held and Merrill with the monument at Liberty Park. Riley, who did not know the sisters personally, said she was touched in the wake of the tragedy when she heard the many stories about what all the women did for the community — taking care of the sick and uninsured, providing medicine for those who could not afford it and even helping someone sign up for disability.
“I feel like their love was heartfelt to the community. The service they gave to the community, because it came from the heart, it touches the heart,” she said. “When I saw (the people of Durant) so hurt and so distraught, it touched my heart, and I said, ‘We cannot forget them,’ because they did so much for us, not only in Durant but Holmes County. They shouldn’t be forgotten. I want my children, my grandchildren, my great-grandchildren to always remember them.”
After a closing prayer and blessing by Father Plata, a memorial Mass was held at St. Thomas, followed by a fish fry.
With the storms passed and the sun out and shining, parishioners and guests gathered outside St. Thomas to dry off and share memories of the sisters before the church service.
Sister Michele Doyle, SSSF, of Ridgeland, who also teaches a weekly Bible study at the church, remembered Held and Merrill as women who did “all the right things.”
“They recycled. They had their own garden. They lived a very simple life. They were helping the poor,” she said. “They were my very good friends, and I miss them a lot.”
A couple of nurses who are both members of the church talked about how Held and Merrill were respected in the local medical community and would go out of their way to help any of their patients.
“They were just so generous with their time and their money, and they treated everybody so personably,” said Barbara Bogy, a registered nurse at University Hospital-Lexington.
“They were just goodness walking,” added Beverly Brown, now retired from the Health Department in Lexington. “You couldn’t find a patient who didn’t love them to pieces, because they helped everybody.”
The group reminisced about Merrill’s delicious oatmeal cookies that she would bring to church potlucks and Held’s salads, featuring veggies from her garden and a homemade dressing, which she brought to the weekly Bible study class.
“They were excellent cooks,” said Sister Doyle.
Jamie Sample, the music leader at St. Thomas, said that the past several months have been hard for the 35-member parish.
“They were like our family, and they were my choir. Every time I pick the music out, I cry,” she said. “We just miss them so much. It’s just left such a void. They did so much that we didn’t even know that they did.”
Sister Tonya Severin, vice provincial for the Western Province of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, who knew Merrill for the past 14 years, said she thought the monument would be a way for the people of Durant and Holmes County to keep a connection to Held and Merrill.
“They were such a presence to the people of this area that I think if they just go to that memorial and just sit there and talk or touch it, somehow that touching can bring back some of that connection again and can be a way to find strength to go on, because that’s what they brought to us,” she said. “I think it isn’t just their deaths that are important, it’s their lives. They lived with the message of Jesus, that we are to give of ourselves in loving service to others, and that’s what they did so unobtrusively.”
As the rain began to fall during the dedication ceremony, Sister Ramona Schmidtknecht, SSSF, of Holly Springs, said she immediately thought about telephone conversations she had with her friend, Held.
“She would call us from Durant and ask if we got rain, and she’d say, ‘Oh, it missed us again,’ and she said, ‘It goes everywhere around us but in Durant,’” said Schmidtknecht. “She would want rain for her flowers, and she said, ‘We just don’t get it.’ She brought the rain today, but I thought, ‘OK, but not so much.’”
(Ruthie Robison is the lifestyles editor for the Greenwood Commonwealth and a member of Greenwood Immaculate Heart of Mary Parish.)