Nearly a decade after the deaths of Sister Paula Merrill and Sister Margaret Held, their ministry continues through the people and places of Holmes County, Mississippi.
The hot afternoon sun filtered through the stained-glass windows in the quiet sanctuary of St. Thomas Catholic Church in Lexington, Mississippi.
Sister Jackulin Jesu, president of the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth, and Sister Susan Gatz sat in a pew. It was where Paula Merrill, SCN, and Margaret Held, OSF, had prayed Sunday after Sunday before another week caring for patients at the Lexington Medical Clinic. A decade after their deaths, they returned to the same pews to give thanks for lives devoted to God and the people of Holmes County.
For a few moments, the two Sisters sat in silence. Then Sister Susan began to pray.
“Gracious God, we thank you for the lives of these women who were so devoted to you and so devoted to your people,” she prayed. “We sit here today where they sat. We remember who they were. We rejoice in who they are now.”
When she finished, Sister Jackulin continued.
“For this sacred place,” she prayed. “For their presence here … We also pray for the community here. Bless us with the spirit of joy and the spirit of love with which our Sisters served this place.”
It was a simple moment. No audience. No ceremony.
The visit was not about reliving tragedy. It was about remembering a way of life that continues to shape Holmes County.
Where They Chose to Call Home
Holmes County sits in central Mississippi, where small towns are connected by two-lane highways that wind through cotton fields and forests. Poverty has challenged the region for generations. Access to health care remains difficult for many families, with residents often traveling long distances for medical appointments, pharmacies and hospitals.
For Sister Paula, that was exactly where she felt called to serve.
Born in Stoneham, Massachusetts, she first came to Mississippi in 1981. What began as a ministry assignment became home. She spent more than three decades caring for people throughout the state before moving with Sister Margaret to the Lexington Medical Clinic.
There, medicine was about the person as a whole.
“We do more social work than medicine sometimes,” Sister Paula once said. “Sometimes patients are looking for a counselor.”
She asked questions that reached beyond symptoms.
“How much do you have?”
“Are you out?”
“A bottle lasts you 12 days?”
She wanted to know whether patients could afford their medications, whether they had transportation or whether another burden was standing between them and better health.
At her funeral in 2016, Sister Adeline Fehribach captured what made Sister Paula’s ministry different.
“She listened not only to where it hurts,” Sister Adeline eulogized, “but also to the stories her patients needed to tell.”
Those stories often included poverty, loneliness, addiction, racism and impossible financial choices.
Sisters Paula and Margaret responded the only way they knew how.
“We just see patients and do what needs to be done,” Sister Paula often said.
For them, that meant finding free medications, helping patients receive needed tests and, at times, paying for prescriptions themselves.
Friends, Not Only Patients
The Sisters quickly became part of the community.
That was evident throughout a recent visit to Mississippi.
Sam Sample welcomed the visitors into his home, sharing stories of years spent celebrating holidays, meals and ordinary moments with Sisters Paula and Margaret. They worshipped together at St. Thomas, but their friendship extended far beyond Sunday mornings. They were family.
Outside the home where he and his wife, Jamie, welcomed Sisters Paula and Margaret for countless meals and celebrations, Sam stood with Sister Susan and Sister Jackulin. Nearly 10 years later, friendship still draws people back to Holmes County.
“They weren’t just the Sisters over at the clinic. They were good people. I’d do anything for them. They could call any time of day or night, and we’d be there,” said Sam, speaking of the connection he and his late wife had with the Sisters.
Walking through the places they knew so well offered a glimpse into lives marked by simplicity, hospitality and deep relationships.
The visit also included the memorial in Durant, the home where the Sisters lived and the roads they traveled each day between Durant and Lexington.
Before leaving Holmes County, Sister Jackulin and Sister Susan spent time turning the pages of newspaper clippings carefully preserved over the past decade. Headlines recalled the shock of Aug. 25, 2016. Photographs captured grief that spread far beyond Mississippi. But as they looked through the stories, the conversation kept returning to the years that came before those headlines: the friendships, the patients, the quiet acts of compassion and the ministry that shaped a community long before the world knew their names.
The newspaper headlines told the story the world remembers. Holmes County remembers the rest.
The pilgrimage also led Sister Jackulin and Sister Susan through the streets of Durant, where quiet roads, aging storefronts and modest neighborhoods reveal both the challenges and resilience of the community Paula and Margaret called home. They paused at the memorial erected near the Sisters’ former residence, offering another prayer of gratitude before continuing to Lexington Medical Clinic.
The stops were not simply places to remember the past. They were reminders that the needs that first brought Sisters Paula and Margaret to Holmes County are still present today.
Every stop told the same story. The people remembered. Not because of the way Sisters Paula and Margaret died, but because of the way they lived.
The Doors Are Still Open
At Lexington Medical Clinic, the story did not end in 2016.
Nearly 10 years after Sister Paula and Sister Margaret’s deaths, the work continues because people like Dr. Elias Abboud have chosen to stay. Now 71 and retired from university medicine, Abboud still drives nearly 50 miles to Lexington four mornings each week.
“As long as I am able to do that, I’ll keep working half a day,” he said. “Not for the money. Just to keep it open.”
The clinic operates on a narrow margin, serving patients who often struggle to afford health care. Many rely on Medicare or Medicaid, while others have no insurance at all. Yet little has changed in the clinic’s approach.
“Even if they don’t have insurance, we still see them,” Abboud said. “This was the case since we started this, and we’re still the same.”
Helping patients afford medications remains part of the clinic’s mission, just as it was during Sisters Paula and Margaret’s years there. When someone cannot pay for a prescription or a copay, the staff looks for a way to help, just as Sisters Paula and Margaret once did. Abboud hopes the clinic will one day become part of a larger charitable health system so it can continue serving Holmes County long after he is no longer able to practice.
An anonymous painting of Sisters Paula and Margaret now hangs in the clinic, quietly reminding staff and patients of the women who helped shape its mission. During the visit, the group was welcomed by Sisters Margaret Sue Broker, Ramona Schmidtknecht, Julene Stromberg and Rose Hacker of the School Sisters of St. Francis, who also traveled from other parts of Mississippi to Durant to honor Sister Margaret and the ministry she shared with Sister Paula.
Reflecting on the pilgrimage, Sister Jackulin called the journey “sacred and inspiring,” writing that visiting the church, the memorial, the Sisters’ home and the clinic was “a moving experience, reminding us of the faith, love and sacrifice that continue to bear fruit today.”
Carrying the Mission Forward
To mark the 10th anniversary of their deaths, the Sisters of Charity of Nazareth will gather for a memorial Mass on Aug. 25, 2026, at Nazareth, Kentucky, joining friends, family and supporters in giving thanks for the lives and ministry of Sisters Paula and Margaret.
Time has brought change to Holmes County, but it has not erased the compassion that Sister Paula and Sister Margaret shared so freely.
The clinic continues caring for patients.
Friends still tell stories.
And each day, people continue serving their neighbors with the same quiet generosity that defined two nurse practitioners who chose to make rural Mississippi their home.
The most lasting tribute is found in every act of compassion that continues where the Sisters once served.
In this part of Mississippi, the pew at St. Thomas is still there. The clinic doors still open each morning. Friends still gather around kitchen tables to tell stories. And every day, someone receives the kind of care Sisters Paula Merrill and Margaret Held believed every person deserved.
In Holmes County, their witness is no longer measured only by the years they served, but by the compassion that continues because they were here.