Sister Mary Margaret Wainman, O.P., a Sister of St. Dominic, Amityville, L.I., for 73 years, died Nov. 7. She was 92.
Born in Springfield Gardens, she entered the Dominicans in 1942. Later that year, she was admitted to the novitiate and received her religious name Sister Maureen Maeve. On Aug. 7, 1943, she pronounced her vows.
She taught at Our Lady of Guadalupe, Dyker Heights, 1943-46, and St. Martin of Tours, Amityville, L.I.
She then attended St. Catherine’s School of Nursing, Bushwick, where she became a registered nurse, staff nurse, and then head nurse and clinical instructor.
She later earned a bachelor’s degree in nursing education at St. John’s University, and a master’s in hospital administration from NYU.
She worked in a clinic in La Perla, a poor, crime-ridden suburb of San Juan, Puerto Rico, 1953-54. She then returned to St. Catherine’s Hospital; served on the staff at Consolation Home, then located in Amityville; and was a school nurse at All Saints, Williamsburg.
In 1961, she returned to La Perla, where she opened a drug addiction clinic for young women called Casa Providencia (Our Lady of Divine Providence). With grants, the clinic grew and met the needs of 7,000 people annually. She was known among the people as “The Angel of La Perla,” and the City of San Juan gave her several honors, including a patriotism award.
In 1979, she went to work at the Veterans Hospital in Rio Piedras, Puerto Rico, before returning to the U.S. She ministered at the veterans’ hospitals in Charleston, S.C., and in St. Albans.
She was a supervisor at the Brooklyn VA Hospital, Fort Hamilton, 1982-97; and volunteered North Fork Spanish Apostolate in Riverhead, L.I., 1997-2003.
At age 80, she joined two religious sisters in opening a mission, Parroquia San Pio in Nariño, Colombia.
In 2006, she returned to her volunteer ministry with the Spanish Apostolate in Riverhead until poor health required a move to Carlin Hall, Amityville.
A Mass of Christian Burial was celebrated Nov. 10 in St. Albert’s Chapel of Queen of the Rosary Motherhouse, Amityville. Burial was in the sisters’ cemetery.
