Sister Mary Period

Speaking of filthy rags…
My mom told me a story this weekend about her days growing up in the Catholic orphanage.
When the girls were menstruating, they were ordered to use only two bathrooms in the entire orphanage. Stored in the bathrooms, were stacks of rags that were made by tearing old sheets into long strips of fabric. The girls would take the sheets back to the dormitory and fold them into a shape that they would then pin to their underwear. When it was time to “change”, they would go to one of the assigned bathrooms and throw them in the covered trash can. The rags would then be washed and recycled for the next girl.
Once pads were introduced, they had to go to a supply office and tell the nun that they were menstruating. Mom said Sister Mary Period (alright, I made that up – my mother would never be so flippant) would always look at them like they were sinners and then count out exactly 12 pads. It didn’t matter how heavy you menstruated, you got 12 pads. She would then wrap the pads in a newspaper and hand it to the offender.
My poor mother – she bled through everything and always missed school for the first two days of her period, but still only received 12 pads once a month. I asked her if she ever asked any of the “lighter flow” girls if she could use any of their extras, and she responded, “I never even thought about doing that”.
Yep, that’s what the nuns did to people – she still finds it hard to think outside the box and she’s 80 years old…and works at the local parish rectory.