Carmelite Sisters will leave Corpus Christi after closing of home
CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas—Sister Mary Joseph Heisler laid Gideon’s fleece at the foot of her Lord.
The Corpus Christi Caller-Times reports she wanted to know if the Mount Carmel assisted living home on South Alameda Street in Corpus Christi could be saved.
“The Story of Gideon is that if he was supposed to go out and battle, (he’ll) lay this fleece, and if it’s wet with dew in the morning than it means, ‘OK, go.’ He wakes up in the morning, and the fleece is wet with dew,” Heisler said. “(He) did it one more time and said I’m going to lay it out and if it’s dry in the morning, it means I’m supposed to go.”
Gideon’s fleece was dry in the morning, so he left to fight. But Heisler said the fleece she laid before God did not return the same results when she sought guidance on Mount Carmel’s renovation project.
“Recognizing our own limitations as sisters, I asked ‘Is this what you’re asking of us? Is this what you’re wanting us to do?’” she said.
“If the construction costs come in at $13 million than ‘Yes,’ but if they’re between $15-$20 million, it’s a ‘No.’”
The construction costs were $17 million, which led the sisters to make the decision to close Mount Carmel on July 31 and work to re-home its 30 residents.
“It came in $3 million higher than we were anticipating,” Heisler said.
The home’s closure also means that the Carmelite Sisters will leave Corpus Christi. The band of sisters have served the Diocese of Corpus Christi for 92 years.
Heisler said the eight nuns will disperse throughout the order’s North and Central provinces in the United States. Some could go overseas depending on their service.
In her 80s, Sister Mary Concepta Chang has served the home since the 1970s, the longest of any of the sisters.
A three-paragraph public notice on the home’s website ends with a brief goodbye.
“Our presence may leave, but our love remains,” the notice states.
Last year, a marketing study was conducted on what renovations would need to be made to bring Mount
The structure itself is no longer suited for today’s population. Bathroom doors are very small, not senior-friendly (you can’t get a walker into the bathroom).” —Sister Mary Joseph Heisler
Carmel up to code and modernized. The facility was built in 1953 and had the assisted living market cornered until 1997 when the second facility of its kind was built in Corpus Christi.
Heisler admits that key community relationships were not maintained to be able to raise some of the money through a capital campaign.
The home is owned by the Carmelite Sisters of the Divine Heart of Jesus. The sisters have served Corpus Christi and the diocese since 1925 when they were asked to take care of preschool children.
Since her arrival in Corpus Christi last year, Heisler said many doors were opened by Bishop Michael Mulvey to the sisters to try to rebuild relationships.
“A lot of people were unaware of our situation, but it’s not their fault. They were just unaware,” she said. “It looks so beautiful on the outside.”
The architecture of the home makes it one of the most unique in Corpus Christi. But while appealing from the outside, the interior and mechanical systems were in a state of disrepair that was too much to overcome.
“The structure itself is no longer suited for today’s population,” Heisler said. “Bathroom doors are very small, not senior-friendly (you can’t get a walker into the bathroom).”
She explained the home’s six-decadeold mechanical systems didn’t tame the city’s humid conditions any longer.
“We tried to get the air conditioning functioning appropriately,” Heisler said, “but it’s almost original to the building itself.”
The home, which has a capacity of 60 residents, currently has 30. Heisler said all but about five of those residents have found other assisted living facilities in the area.
Mount Carmel has been the only faith-based facility for lower-income senior citizens in Corpus Christi for decades.
Establishing a “Home for the Aged” was first considered by the order in 1945, and ground broke eight years later. A new wing was added in 1965.
The property, which includes a structure with two wings, a chapel, kitchen and basement, as well as an attached convent and other structures, was designed to look like a Spanish mission.
When it was built, it was surrounded by cotton fields and small houses, according to a 1991 book detailing the order’s history in the U.S.
From the beginning, all denominations of faith were welcome. It wasn’t until 1997 that another assisted living home was built in Corpus Christi, Heisler said.
The Area Agency on Aging/Disability Resource Center is a federal and state-funded local agency that assists older citizens find assisted living through referrals and options counseling.
Viola Monrreal, agency director, said the center was made aware of Mount Carmel’s closure when a child of one of the home’s residents recently called for assistance. The agency then called the Texas Department of State Health Services.
“We had a meeting here internally with our options counselor, which provides assistance in finding nursing or assisted living facilities,” Monrreal said. “Depending on what their needs are, we give them information on subsidized housing.”
The agency is waiting for calls from family members of Mount Carmel’s residents. Monrreal said less that two months is not much time to relocate 30 people, especially because subsidized housing for senior citizens and community resources are scarce.
If residents’ income level and medical needs make them eligible for nursing home Medicaid, they could be accepted at a higher-priced assisting facility, but that is not common, she said.