Our Story

Sister Margaret was my great aunt, and she was a nun. We saw each other every few years, when her visits to the US from the Democratic Republic of Congo aligned with my summer visits to my grandparent’s house. We shared a set of bunkbeds in the basement in the sticky Georgia heat. At night she would tell me stories about her life in Pelende, the school, the children she taught. She taught chemistry and P.E., served as school director, installed a photovoltaic power system for the school and neighboring buildings, worked on water infrastructure, survived civil war. We called her Sissy.

I hadn’t spoken to Sissy in many years when I got a call in 2016. I was in Boston, in graduate school. “It’s me, Sissy- I’m in Ipswich.” And so began my second knowing of Sissy. I would take the train to Ipswich once or twice a month and spend the day with her at her convent’s retirement center. Towards the end of her life I was diagnosed with breast cancer. It was only then that I found the courage to tell her I was gay. I was 27. Sissy couldn’t care less. I learned how to knit as a way to keep my mind and hands busy in waiting rooms and during treatments. And out of that learning and coping and adjusting (and surviving) came Sister Margaret Knits; dedicated to her spirit and her love for life.