Bellefontaine Immaculate Heart of Mary

Sisters’ Day Off

The hiring of Mario Tristany has an interesting story. At that time a scandal had developed in Europe involving the assignment of duties to nuns in convents. It seems that women from third world countries were assigned menial duties in order to serve the nuns from the more properous countries. This must have got the fathers thinking because the sisters at the school were working every day, long hours. So Mr. Tristany was hired to do the cooking on Thursday, so the sisters could have a day off. Also Sunday dinner consisted of leftovers and cold cuts in the evening so they had Sunday afternoon off. Right after this system started Fr. Mcquire went down to the convent to see how they were enjoying their day off. Apparently the sisters had brought a lot of the laundry down to the convent so they could keep working. Well Father Mcquire was not too happy with that so he scheduled recreational activities for the sisters after that. For example, he would have them driven to the movies. I was given the job of teaching them English.

A Mrs Dyer was also hired as school dietician. The quality of the food did improve under her jurisdiction. She also baked fresh rolls on an almost daily basis. I often had the job of pot scrubber along with Hugh Carty in the scullery. When Mrs. Dyer was baking she often had the pot scrubbers sample her baked goods.