Our encounter happened one sunny day in September, when I returned to music classes at the Convent after a two martini lunch!
I was a music student at Vincent d'Indy, run by the nuns within the Mother House of the Congregation of Nom de Jesus Marie.
Now, I was not the "normal" convent age of 16-18.
I was 23. The age when you go out with your boyfriend for a two martini lunch.
On the day in question, I returned from lunch, staggered up the outside stairs to the convent,
opened the heavy front door with great difficulty...
and stopped dead in my tracks:
There, coming down the majestic winding stairs of the Mother House, was an equally majestic nun.
She was followed by her coterie of squeaking ducklings (a.k.a. nuns-in-training)
scampering down the stairs behind her.
The two-martinis had a powerful effect.
Suddenly, I was overcome with a vision – a vision of the obsequious courtier in Hamlet, Oswald,
dressed in tights and wildly magnificent plumed hat.
(That summer I had seen Hamlet performed at Stratford.)
I became Oswald.
I took off my imaginary plumed hat, swept it in back of me,
And, in grand homage to the majestic nun, bent into a low low bow,
with the knee of my front leg almost touching the ground, and grandly pronounced,
"Bonjour, Ma Belle Soeur!"
The nun completely ignored me.
She swept past me, her head imperiously positioned over her body.
The next morning, I received a message.
“The Director wants to see you....immediately!”
The voices in my head were chattering.
“You stepped over the line. Your time is now up. Don't protest. Leave the convent graciously.”
I knocked on the Director’s door, and entered with my head bowed.
To my shock, she greeted me with a great hug and smile!
“Claire, how did you know that the nun you greeted yesterday
was the Mother Superior of the entire convent?
She came to my office, and said,
'Who is that magnificent student who gave me such an obeissance!
I have been coming to this convent for 20
and never, never, have I been shown such a grand respect!’"
The little voices inside me went into a panic!
“Don’t you dare tell Sister Stephane about the two martini lunch!”
Postcript: One of the other music students told me the story going around:
"The Mother Superior was a converted Jew!"
