StoryCorps: Sr. Monique Therriault

Sr. Monique: Both my brothers, and my sister and I had Sisters of Mercy in school in Claremont, NH. Went through the eighth grade and then through high school there. Had some very favorite nuns, some of them – even today – I would consider them heroes. Wonderful women and it was a good experience. And my sister was the first, after graduating high school, to enter the Sisters of Mercy. And I guess I must have really liked what I saw, because I followed 14 months later. I entered the Sisters of Mercy at the age of 17.

Catherine: Was that a good choice?

Sr. Monique: Today, I say it was an excellent choice. I’ve been able to expand my career. And it just seems to me to have helped me to grow as a person and as a woman. High school was a ball for me. I just loved dating and having fun, and the nuns never looked down on that. And one of the most precious gifts I’ve ever received was when my then boyfriend gave me a pen and pencil set when he heard that I was entering the convent. And that’s when I knew that it was okay with my friends to enter the community. And sociologically it was an okay time. It was 1952 and huge things hadn’t happened, socially.

Catherine: Could you talk a little about the transition from what you used to call the “dark period.”

Sr. Monique: Yes. My “blackout period.”

Catherine: “Blackout period.” When you went from being in habit, and being in the convent, and following all these rules and not being able to drive, to a completely different kind of life.

Sr. Monique: The vow of obedience could have been seen as something very stifling and unable to develop yourself. But then with Vatican II there began to be, I think, a movement in the church that these women had a lot of background and good education and they needed to be respected for their intelligence and the careers they had developed. So the first chance I got, with three other friends, to move into an apartment in Manchester; move out of the convent. I took that chance and my mother and father loved the idea.

Catherine: You were somewhat limited in your contact with them in the early days, and I think that was an issue for them.

Sr. Monique: Exactly. They resented that terribly, Cathy. They were very hurt by that. That all during the canonical year we had four visits, we were not allowed to write letters, we were not able to communicate with “the outside world.” And then my mother decided that “the outside world” was pretty holy; that it was just as holy as “the inside world.” That’s important to me, and it’s important to religious women.

Catherine: To me, that’s really one of the things I’ve always loved about you, is that the world is the holy place.

Sr. Monique: Exactly.