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"You have to be in for the long haul. Mallory is an excellent lesson in that." Sister Geraldine hurriedly adjusts her veil and prepares to attend Mass. This is the one day of the year when Sisters of the Good Shepherd all over the world renew their vows. No ceremony takes place; Mary Paul and Geraldine will reaffirm their vows in silence at the regular morning Mass at St. Michael's. Geraldine calls upstairs to Mary Paul that they may be late, conjectures that Mary Paul is lost in the morning papers.
"Mallory says he wants to ditch Eileen, and I believe he means it. If he really wants to provide a new mother for Michael and if that makes for a solid loving family, I'll be glad to see it happen. Eileen certainly isn't easy to get to. I make appointments with her at the center, but she rarely shows up. She has complications of her own, and I wish we could begin to see how they impinge on her relationship with both Mallory and Michael. We call this the Center for Family Life because we believe in families as systems, that everyone touches and affects everyone else. Yet Mallory contradicts himself too. The three of them spent Thanksgiving happily at Eileen's parents' house; Mallory told me so. It speaks for the necessity of patience."
Mary Paul descends the stairs and picks up on Geraldine's last words. "You have to help people be patient with themselves, as well. Rose, whom you met, is living in an imaginary world right now, in which she tells herself that everything is going to be fine for her and the six children. But ask Anita Cleary, Rose's case worker, and you will discover things such as Rose's total inability to handle money; Anita has confronted Rose on that. Those ballet lessons Rose is so delighted with cost $500. Anita is very careful to do two things at once with Rose: to make her believe that everything is possible, and to prepare her for defeat, so that she won't collapse. That strategy applies to Mallory, Maria, Tony and Ingrid, and, I imagine, to us too."
The nuns start walking toward St. Michael's. Geraldine, no taller than 5 ft. 7 in., appears twice the size of Mary Paul. They walk comfortably together, having done so for many years, each one's stride making automatic concessions to the other's.
"I think one must learn a different, less urgent sense of time here," says Mary Paul, "one that depends more on small moments than big ones. Today we renew our vows. It is a special day, but not as special as you might think. There are no really special days here, no momentous occasions. That even includes Christmas. I would not go so far as to say that Christmas is merely another day in Sunset Park, but in a way it is. It is necessary for us to remember that there is the day after Christmas too. Helping families to give toys is gratifying, but quite momentary. For me Christmas is special because it is a quiet day at the center, and it allows me time to meditate and replenish myself.