*edits added after originally posting are in brackets and in bold.
My mother was a nun and my father was a priest.
I often start talking about my parent’s story this way. I then have to say, they both left religious life before they met each other. But I actually know much less of my mother’s religious story than my father’s. I know she started college, but didn’t finish. I know she entered the convent, but left before taking her final vows. I don’t know the relationship between these two things.
There was a shared story in the comments of last week’s post (thank you Angela), remembering Norma coming home from the convent. This directed my photo searching this week as well as a bit of research on what I can tell from the colors of her habits.
my observations and wonderings
There is this look in her face of intention, openness, and searching.
I know she continued to be a practicing catholic her whole life, and enjoyed participating in religious communities, like cursillos. So what was it that made her decide the nun life wasn’t for her?
It looks like most of these photos are her as a postulant (the first stages of religious life before becoming a novice). These would be the ones where she is wearing all white. Then she takes vows to become a novice (the two with the white robe and black habit). And then she leaves before taking final vows.
There are so many things I don’t know. Where was this convent? [Adrian, Michigan, where my grandma also went, was a catholic high school. Then my mother went to a convent in Lufkin, TX where she stayed for 5 years. After 5 years, she came home to make the decision of whether to take final vows. She then met my father.] Did she do part of her high school there? Her graduation photos almost bleed into these ones, or the ones where she’s in all black.
Norma was the oldest of fifteen children, and I wonder how this influenced her decision to enter the convent.
I was a religion major and had many conversations about the existence of god, gender and catholicism, and the language of religion with both my dad and my mom’s best friend, but never talked about it with my mom.
What was this young Norma with a wreath of flowers on her head going through? What was she wondering during this early time in her life?
This post begs for fact checking. Feel free to add or correct any of my conjectures.
Tia Goya says
The convent was in Adrian, Michigan. Your grandma Edwina also went there. They were cloistered Dominican. Too isolated was my thought
Carmen padilla says
Ok Grams & your mother went to the catholic school in Adrian Michigan . Norma graduated from there. She then entered the monastery in Lufkin Texas for 5 years after 5 years she went home to make the decision to go back to the monastery or not while she was home she got a job @ Denny’s where she met your Dad that was her answer to not go back to the monastery . She told me while in the monastery she learned so much discipline & inner peace. What is so ironic Grandma was home from Christmas break @ the Michigan school where she was going to be a Nun while on break she met Dad & never went back . The same as your parents
Sundi says
Ok. So Catholic school / high school in Adrian, Michigan. I really have a lot of questions on why Michigan??? It seems so far away. I had no idea that Grandma went there, too! Then Lufkin, TX as a postulant and later novice (5 years). Then she went back home to make a decision (I also have many questions here) and she met my dad at Denny’s (this story I know). Thanks for filling in some blanks, Tia.