LifeStory: Monastery, a visit.

Of what use is education if I were to become a nun?

I wondered and decided to enter right away.

The Carmelite nuns were all for it.

My mother was open to the idea, but not the school principal.

She was a nun of the Franciscan order and knew it was imperative I finished secondary school.

To blunt the blow of having to wait another year before I could enter,

my mother let me visit the nuns that August holiday.

My eldest sister, Mary, brought me to the monastery.

The monastery was everything I dreamt about.

The moment I saw the building, I fell in love with it.

It was quaint, old, simple and austere.

Built of wood, it was a single floor.

The chapel attached was a very nice concrete building.

I entered the chapel and could hear the nuns reciting the Divine Office.

It sounded like angels singing.

When the singing stopped, my sister and I went as directed to the parlor.

It was small and barren, with two chairs for visitors.

Facing us were thick metal grills, with another layer of wooden round poles inside.

Shuffling of feet and the doors facing us opened.

It was dark inside.

I could make out the faces of the nuns close to the grill.

Behind them, dark shadows started filing in as more nuns entered.

They greeted us, then bombarded me with questions.

How many brothers and sisters do I have?

How tall am I?

The questions came from all corners, making it hard to answer each of them.

What struck me was their joy, the smiles on their faces.

Seated at one corner was a nun who looked like a saint on Holy Pictures.

Later, I learned she was a Eurasian, accounting for her features.

The long thin face and big deep seated eyes.

When she talked, even her voice sounded hallowed, like a saint.

If the nuns sounded like angels before when they sang, 

now they looked like angels.

I stayed glued to the metal grill, trying to see the sisters through the double grill of metal and wood.

All too soon, the hour was over and it was time to leave.

And I was in love.

How is it possible to fall in love with a group of women?

I wondered, so far I had only fallen in love with boys.

Yet I was in love, so very in love.

I told my sister, they are wonderful and I could not wait to enter.

My sister was not impressed, "Just wait till you enter," she told me.

Later, that inordinate love was to be an indirect cause of much suffering when I entered.