The Convent (54 page)
My very sincere gratitude to the Literature Board of the Australia Council and Arts Victoria for grants enabling me to complete this project on time.
My sincere thanks go to members of the Good Shepherd Community, who agreed to meet and talk with me. Special thanks to Sister Bernadette Fox, who in spite of ill health, was kind enough to see me a number of times, to answer questions as well as write a letter of support on my behalf. (And thanks to Mary Dalmau from Reader's Feast for putting me in touch with Sister Bernadette.) Thanks to Sister Monica Walsh, for showing me around the Convent, giving me a sense of when and where things happened, along with some lovely memories of being a young novice at Abbotsford back in the sixties. Thanks to Suzanne Gardiner who was a member of the Good Shepherd Community at Abbotsford for fifteen years. I really hope that some of her warmth and humour have managed to seep into the pages of my book. Thanks to Sue Gorden as well, who took the time to talk to me at length about her motivation and experiences as a Good Shepherd sister for around five years in the late sixties.
A very special thanks to four Presentation Sisters: Sister Paula Bourke, Sister Rose Derrick who took me through some of the elaborate religious ceremonies of the sixties in great detail. And to Sister Kathleen O'Neil and Sister Rosaleen McCaffrey who were kind enough to write about the feelings they'd had as young women when they were received into the convent all those years ago. Warm thanks to my sister Michaela for setting up the meeting with these women as well as her own intriguing stories and anecdotes about 1960s Convent life. And to Monica and John Murphy both ex religious of many years, thank you both.
Catherine Kovesi's historical work
Pitch Your Tents on Distant
Shores â a History of the Sisters of The Good Shepherd in Australia
,
Aotearoa/New Zealand and Tahaiti
(Playright Publishing, 2006) was a wonderful reference. I thank her for being so open and enthusiastic about sharing all that she knew about the topic when we met on a couple of occasions.
My gratitude to Marjorie O'Dwyer (recently deceased) who talked with me at length about the years she lived in the Sacred Heart Section of the Convent from the age of thirteen until she was twenty-four, in 1970. Her first-hand account of what it was like working long hours in the laundry, the relationships between the older women and girls, the nuns and the auxiliary nuns, sleeping in the dormitories, playing basket ball on Saturdays etcetera was priceless. The day we spent together wandering the Abbotsford site, with her telling one story after another about her time there, is one I'll never forget.
Thanks to Fran Jenkins for her help in putting me in touch with some of the residents in the Good Shepherd nursing home. In particular Mary Murren and Jeanette Manley whose stories I found very touching. Thanks to Wendy McNamara, Kerrin Harvey and Dianne Heard, Sue Munckhof and Jenny Flynn, along with other former residents of the Sacred Heart Class.
A number of women, nuns, ex-nuns and former pupils and residents of the Convent I spoke to wanted to remain anonymous. I respect their wishes and thank them for their contributions.
Thanks too to Christine Carolyn and Jamie Edwards, Jenny Glare, Janey Keene and Dr Madonna Grehan for their insights and information. Thanks to Eleanor and Jasmina Davies for telling me their personal stories about being adopted. And to their parents and my good friends, Mary Ellen and Dave, I thank you too.
Thanks to members of the Abbotsford Convent Foundation; Maggie Maguire, Brenton Geyer and Andrew Evans, for your practical help, interest and enthusiasm.
Lastly, thanks to my three sons, Tom, Joe and Paddy, who throw light into my life in so many ways.
Maureen McCarthy is the ninth of ten children and grew up on a farm near Yea in Victoria. After working for a while as an art teacher, Maureen became a full-time writer. Her novels are firm favourites across generations, and have been shortlisted for numerous awards. The
In Between
series was adapted from scripts Maureen co-wrote with Shane Brennan for SBS TV. Her bestselling and much-loved book
Queen Kat, Carmel and St Jude Get a Life
was made into a successful four-part mini-seres for ABC TV. Maureen has three sons and lives in Melbourne.
