I joined the Society of the Sacred Heart in 1962, to respond to a deeply felt drawing to give my whole life to God through following Jesus. I was impressed by this group of women whose lives were obviously rooted in this call, and I felt that I, too, was called to throw in my lot with them.

All of this gradually unfolded as a total surprise around the age of nineteen to twenty two. I was born into a Catholic family and went to a Catholic Primary School where the religious education presented a somewhat harsh image of God. Despite that, my First Communion was an intense experience of the closeness of Jesus, and was frequently repeated. At the age of eleven, since there was not then any Catholic Secondary Education in Coventry, I went to a Local Authority Grammar School, where I made some lifelong friends who are all committed Anglicans and where my religious horizons were considerably widened! I wanted to be a teacher and it was assumed that I would go to University. By the time I was in the 6th. Form I was enjoying life in many different ways and my A level results were not good enough. I had also lost all interest in faith matters by then. On the suggestion of my Anglican Headmistress I applied to Digby Stuart College to train to be a teacher. It was the first time in my life I had ever met nuns. I was terrified by their black habits and cloister!!

However, I soon discovered that they were deeply human and deeply serious about their commitment to God and to us, the students. Little by little this new atmosphere touched something deep within me which grew into a sense of “falling in love with Jesus”, and a realization that I had to respond to the call I was experiencing. The process was a struggle, especially telling my parents. My mother was very supportive, but my father found it hard, but came round later when he saw that I was happy.

Through all the years that I have lived in the Society I have discovered that the foundational call to a deep personal relationship with Jesus is the spring-board of everything else. It is the vocation I share with all of my other Sisters and the impulse which leads us to try and “discover and reveal the love of God made known through the Heart of Christ.”