And then there were nun Radio 4
Clare visited a convent when she was 17 and fell in love with the religious life, the evening service, the Gregorian chant. She knew that was where she wanted to spend her life.
So, she said flippantly, she cut off her long golden tresses, had a last cigarette with her friend, Martin, at the convent door and stepped inside.
This was an evocative, end of an era story.
Old convents and monasteries have become echoing caverns – too big for the elderly nuns and brothers to care for.
But how do you ask the last remaining sisters and brothers to leave their homes?
It was fitting that this radio programme began with clanging church bells, organ music and the Gregorian chant.
There was an air of the Sound of Music about it – that sweeping panorama of the hills and the heady joy of Maria.
There were warm summery memories of sisters and brothers tending the vegetable patch, looking after the bee hives and keeping pigs in the orchard.
Remember how Sr Giovanna got a bee in her ear?
But the old order is dying out.
A man described going into a big supermarket in downtown Hull and his friend said: “See that woman on the till.
“She’s a Little Sister of Jesus, she’s earning the money to pay for the older nuns.”
Bishop Martin Shaw talked about the difficulties of moving older nuns and brothers from the convents and monasteries which once held a community of 25 but now had just two or three people rattling about.
But this was not all doom and gloom... some communities have adapted and changed.
“It’s not a revolution, it’s not all ‘let’s chuck the friars out’,” said Martin.
It’s more about how we can help their story to be told when that final sister has gone.
