I was born in England in a small market town near Cambridge, growing up in a family from both Protestant and Church of England backgrounds. While Church attendance played an important part in my early years, as I entered my teens I decided I no longer needed to go to Church and I became more firmly fixed in my “no” the more those around me endeavored to persuade me otherwise. However, the day came when curiosity took me inside the Catholic Church in Cambridge, to see what it was like inside. The Church is dedicated to Our Lady and the English Martyrs and I began reading the literature at the back of the Church. I thought that if something was worth dying for, then it must be worth living for. I basically read my way into the Church and following my reception, the idea that maybe the Lord was inviting me to consider religious life began to form in my mind, even if at that moment it was not particularly welcome as i still had other plans! Taking up a copy of “The Way of Perfection”, I felt the dynamic presence of St. Teresa with me as I read her work and from then on, my road led to Carmel. I did not expect the journey to bring me across the Atlantic, but following the closure of my community in Chichester, I chose to come to the US and the Carmel of Terre Haute. In the course of my life in Carmel I have been asked to do many things and have served the community in practically all the offices from cook to Prioress. I am currently Coordinator of Mary, Queen of Carmel Association and it is this position that brings me to a closer connection to the Carmelite Institute and all the work it is hoping to achieve in sharing the rich treasure we have in our Carmelite Saints and Spirituality.
