"In St Louis, I was a point guard. I was small, but good!"

I am the youngest of six. There were two boys, a sister, another two boys, and me. I was four when my brother drowned at fifteen. I grew up with my mother crying all the time. She cried so much, the neighbors heard. He was a very good boy, it was so tragic.

My father was a principal, my mother a grade school teacher when they met. My father was a tall guy. He was about 5’9” tall. My mother was 4’10”. My father would go to my mother’s class to observe. The other teachers thought he was falling in love…they were married by the Justice of the Peace, so the conversion came much later. We were all born and baptized. But, my parents were not married in the eyes of the church.

Three years after, in 1945, they had a church wedding. All was attributed to my brother’s death. They lost their son, but his death converted them…they became very religious.

I attended St Paul’s College, run by the Sisters of Charity. They were wonderful, caring teachers.. You can feel the spiritual environment and it really had an effect on me. I started to yearn for Holy Mass. I would go to San Cruz at noontime. After, I would run back to school, sometimes I would miss my lunch, but it had become a great joy for me. After a long discernment, I entered the active order of the Blue Nuns. I was there for fifteen years.

My call to the contemplative was for me, a specific call! That is the way I look at it. I was in the chapel for prayer and was trying to talk to the Lord. Out of the blue, came…”You can also be my contemplative.” And, right away I said, ”No, no, Lord.” But, surprisingly, the thought of becoming a contemplative followed me. In the day, I was thinking I will not, I cannot, but in the evening, it comes to me, the thought, it brings me so much joy.

I finally answered the call in 1983. I entered the Pink Sisters community in the Philippines. That same year, I was transferred to St. Louis. It is there that I became a great basketball player. Even though I am small, I was the best point guard ever!

I left St Louis for Philadelphia in 2009.