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Posted by Mary Beth
on 11/5/2009, 12:57 pm, in reply to "Sister Gregory"
64.12.117.70
WOW---Gloria---That was SPECIAL!!! I've read it over several times now and I can see exactly what you were saying about what a special Lady she was! I didn't know the side of Sr. Gregory before she was in 43---but I sure saw the other side!!! She just wanted to make 43 be a place like "home"! She knew each and every kid had lots of "baggage" to deal with at their young ages, but that didn't mean that they couldn't have and be just like any other kid "from the out"!!!
She tried to make Cottage 43 as much of a HOME as possible!!!
So every corner had a dustbunny in it---it didn't matter to her as long as the kids were basically happy there!!! And maybe that corner had a dustbunny in it because that corner was never visited by a kid being put in a corner as a punishment!!!
I remember her letting us watch the news--it must have been the 10pm news--late at night--and pointing out Martin Luther King (1967-68) and saying things like---"Look he just wants there to be Peace"---"and look what the people do"!!! But she wanted us to watch it--and see what was going on in the rest of the world!! Y'know--the people on the out!!!
She also liked to play cards and sew clothes and watch movies and TV shows---and rarely gave someone a punishment like--not watching one of them--cuz she knew how much she liked them--and she didn't want a kid to be bugging her during it!!!
She always liked to be the first in line to get something---or the last in that line-and maybe we'd get--the extras!!! She knew when to tell us to "bring the bread bin" to meet her at the elevator in the kitchen when she came down from Prayer--and we'd be able to get the Freshest Bread from Marty's Bakery!!!
She knew how much fun we had when the Cottages were being painted in 1965-66 before the Centennial, and the Cottage was in an upheavel---so she got the key to the showers by the Swimming Pool so we could take showers every night for about a week--instead of taking turns to take a bath in the washrooms that were filled with scaffolding and paint items!!!
She was funny about things like not allowing us to call the jakes---"The Jakes"!!! She knew she really couldn't control what we called it---but if you wanted to get more Jakes paper---you had to go to her to get the key---and you had call it "Toilet paper--or tissue paper"--or she wouldn't hand over the key!!! That was her way of getting you to understand that there was a right and wrong way to be!!! It worked!!!
There were lots of times when she would just try to make a bad situation a little better and try to find some good in everyone!
She sure knew how to make Lemonade out of Lemons---and how Sweet it and She was!!!
Thanks Gloria---for writng and posting this---I'll be thinking of her all day now--and all the little ways she tried to make things better in life!!!
AND---I remember seeing YOUR ZAMPA brick in the Prayer Garden at the Motherhouse---Did you see ours??? It said "We Love You Sr. Gregory, Love, the Weber + Wiley Girls" From Me and my Sisters and Debbie + Gail Weber!!!
Thanks againg Gloria! Love, MB
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