Postulant Mary

Postulant Mary lived and worked in many places – MA, AL, MT, NY, OH—before settling in eastern Kentucky. After attending nursing school, she worked for thirty years in nursing, first in labor and delivery. Moving to NYC, she worked one year at the Catholic Worker and then worked in detox and psychiatric programs. Although she particularly misses the northeast, Mary finds sufficient challenge in eastern Kentucky and feels glad to be rooted in this mountain community.

Mary certainly welcomes challenge. In her late 40’s, she entered law school. She currently works as a Staff Attorney for Appalachian Research and Defense Fund, with a particular focus in family law. She hasn’t cut all ties to health care, however. Saturdays find Mary (metaphorically) wearing her nursing cap. As a nurse consultant for Supports for Community Living at Mountain Comprehensive Care, she reviews medical records to ensure compliance with physicians’ orders and Medicare regulations in assisted living homes for mentally challenged individuals. She is an active member of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth. She also sings in the women’s choir, In Harmony.

A whiz with knitting needles, she is currently working on two projects, fingerless mittens and a beautiful cardigan. These pieces are knitted from wool Mary can trace back to a friend’s flock of sheep, wool that she dyed in a tea of pokeweed berries, wool that she spun into yarn on a hand spindle. She enjoys these pastimes in particular because she can work while riding in a car, sitting in a meeting, or indulging her strange obsession with all things Law and Order.

Mary participates fully in monastic life at Mt. Tabor, although she has yet to take her vows. Her noviate year, an intense period of integrating into community, studying vows, and developing prayer life, a time when the novice stops all outside work other than eight hours of volunteer work, will begin when her law school debts are sufficiently reduced. In the meantime, this tiny woman with a big heart for justice will continue her work in textile arts and in assisting the most vulnerable members in this area of eastern KY.