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LAKE OSWEGO — Mary Grace McDermott, 89, died unexpectedly at Legacy Emanuel Medical Center in Portland Sept. 25. There was a memorial service at Our Lady of the Lake Church.

She was born May 8, 1931, to Gladstone and Grace Ferrety McDermott in Grand Rapids, Michigan. She and her parents moved to Lake Oswego when she was a child.

She joined the Daughters of Charity Convent and she earned her master’s degree while working in a leprosy clinic in New Orleans. She was known as Sister Raphael. During her years as a Daughter of Charity, she worked as a nurse in hospitals in St. Louis, San Francisco, New Orleans and Carville, Louisiana. In 1970, she left the convent and joined the Peace Corps.

After her years with the Peace Corps, she worked as a nurse in California, then returned to Oregon. She married William Cowing Sept. 28, 1979. He had a major stroke and she cared for him at the same time she was caring for her mother and father, who were both very ill.

After losing her father, mother and husband, Ms. McDermott did volunteer nursing in the community and at Blanchet House. Her friends say she had a deep faith and lived her life every day in anticipation of seeing the face of God.

She is survived by several cousins and her parish family of Our Lady of the Lake.

Donations in her memory can be made to the church.