Block Island mourns the loss of Mary Donnelly

“I just hope they remember me as a good person,” Mary Donnelly said once in an interview broadcast on national news.Of course, on Block Island Mary D. is being remembered as much more. She is regularly called an angel, a savior, a saint, an icon. When the news broke last week that Mary had passed away at 94 it was devastating for many who hoped the day would never come.Mary D. is famous not only for her more than 50 years of nursing on Block Island but even more so around the nation for the charitable fund she started with others in the 1970s to help the people of Block Island.She came to Block Island in 1958 with her husband, who came for work, and her young family that would grow to include seven children.When she was 83, and not yet retired, she started to attract the attention of major news organizations.In 2011 Mary D. was featured on the NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams in the “Making a Difference” segment with Ron Mott. About her work with the Mary D. Fund, established in the 1970s, Mary said: “I work with my heart instead of my hand.”Through her

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