Welcome to my testimony page.
My life has been incredibly exciting at least for me.
God has been with me with me every step of the way and I cease to be amazed by his power.
All glory goes to God, and I thank him deeply for all my blessings and trials.
Enjoy
Love Louisa
The Nuns
Much of our upbringing in Fort Kent was by the Catholic nuns of our Saint Louis church.
They were beautiful and seemed to float as they made their way throughout the convent. Their grace and serenity was such a presence that we all wanted to be nuns when we grew up. As our teachers we did fear them a little when they were stern. Of course, as children when we were scolded, we would assign them nicknames. Mother Superior became Mother Bulldog, and her scowl was certainly something a child would fear in their dreams. No nun was safe from being called a penguin by all the students. There was one nun whom we were sure God himself gave her a ride in the palm of his hand straight from heaven to earth. Sister Annunciation was perfect. Her face was angelic, her grace non compared and her smile we knew that no matter how much she may have had to scold us you could run to her arms, and she would hug you and give forgiveness.
Sunday mornings found us all in church and as children jostling around in the pews to be seen by the nuns. We wanted to be sure our teacher nuns saw that we were good children in church. Upon exiting the church our parents would be walking behind us and as children we pushed each other gently to once again be sure the nuns would see us.
Yes, children do the darndest things!
Come Monday morning we would head back to school and with the sisters. We called the nuns sisters as they really were special Earth Angels. They were extremely strict and on occasion I was the recipient of their ever so interesting forms of punishment.
On three occasions in which two out of three I was guilty. The third was purely incidental. As they say no good deed goes unpunished and although I don't' believe that in this case it was true.
The girl's bathroom in school was typical of any old convent. The long row of white porcelain sinks, on the right and the long row of toilets on the left. For privacy we were each required to stand in front of the metal doors that gave you access to the toilets. As each of us completed our necessity the next one in line would move up and stand in front of the door. I'm not sure why this routine was set in place, but we thought it was pretty funny to see us all standing as little soldiers guarding toilets. Stand straight, shoulders back, hands behind your back, no fidgeting and look straight ahead and no talking.
We would often chance a whisper out of the corner of our mouths to the girl inside.
"Hurry up!" or to the girl next to us "Isn't she done yet?" One morning the girl next to me whispered "My shoe is untied" I of course wanting God to know I was always helpful whispered "I'll tie it for you" so I happily leaned over to the side and tied her shoe. I remember it so clearly it was her right shoe and I had to lean over to my left. I never moved my feet and remained guarding the metal door.
Timing is everything and that day timing was not my friend. Just as I finished tying my classmate's shoe and was still leaned over one of the sisters turned around and bingo shoot a stare at me that pierced my body and took my breath away. In the eyes of the sister, I was guilty as charged. Guilty for looking under the door while someone was doing their business. In my head I was "No God I wasn't looking under the door, it never occurred to me to look." In reality my mouth wouldn't move. I was horrified and the girl with the shoe never spoke a word to defend me.
My punishment became " you will clean erasers today after school." Oh, my sweet Lord not the dreaded eraser bucket!!! The eraser bucket filled with all the blackboard erasers used that day in every classroom and on every super-sized blackboard. March outside to the back of the convent near the janitor entrance and bang those erasers against the brick until the erasers were once again black having removed all the white chalk. So, there I was after school banging erasers turning the sunset red brick into a graveyard of used white chalk. Of course, I just pretended it looked like Christmas snow as a wind would move snowflakes that stuck to the side of the convent. Then I realized the true punishment was the chalk dust landing on my uniform, in my hair and all over my face like my dog who got into the bag of flower.
I always found beauty in everything and how I looked didn't matter because the view I had just past the corner of the brick was the Fish River. How I loved that river, and no matter how many erasers were still in the bucket to clean I smiled. On a grassy knoll next to the river was a beautiful white chapel intricately accented in what looked like tatted lace strung along the outside of the chapel. You could see but do not look inside and certainly don't go near the knoll. It was mysterious because you knew not the interior, but it had Gods energy and beauty, yet it surely had the fear of the nuns should you break that rule. What were they hiding? I never knew if they were hiding something, or it was just a private little sanctuary for the nuns to take a break from all the children. Simply behold the beauty and elegance and be happy with your imagination.
STAY TUNED