Greta's Story

I feel I was lucky: I was 17 when I went and had a drivers license! I feel I was so lucky as I got out all the time and while I was good while out, I was able to get to know the people who came with me! I hosted a reunion several years ago now and expressed how the consecrate really left me alone: I never had human formation my senior year, and went for 4 months without spiritual direction. I remember feeling left out of that, but now am thankful! As more and more continues to come out (when I read about fr Williams I was at work and had to call my mom ASAP!), I keep remembering my mom asking me if they were wrong to send me to the PC- I told her no, it was the best thing for me (I needed to be in school to graduate! - never would have gone to college without the PC!). However, the next question my mom asked me still haunts her: "if you had a daughter and she asked to go, would you say yes?" I said: never...

I think that is one of the biggest things I lost: my mother and I don't have a close relationship. It was the worst when I first came back post graduation. She wanted a child with a vocation and I was her last hope.... I took a friend home years ago and the friend made a comment that my mother described me but based on her description my friend knew my mom didn't know me.  She described me as she knew me, a 16 year old teenage girl.  She has never spent quality time with me after I went to Rhode Island. Between college and getting employed 700 miles away from home, she hasn't had the chance to live with me for more than a week or so at a time!

I also came from a dairy farm. Honestly, waking up at 6 and sleeping at 9:30 was a luxury for me! I used to get lectures about how retreats weren't "vacations," but for me they were!