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Thornton Academy
438 Main St.
Saco, Maine, 04072
(207) 282-3361
STORY BY DOW SAUNDERS
PHOTOGRAPHY BY MAURA VAILENCOURT
DESIGN BY KATRINA DESJARDINS & ASHLEY PETERSON
In the dimly lit, silent waiting room of the Bay View Convent/Villa, I crossed my legs, leaned back into the firm green armchair, and inhaled my peaceful, airy surroundings. I saw countless sheep faithfully following their shepherd, a likeness of Christ, in a rug-hooked image hanging across the room from me. As I sat tracing their diminutive footprints, I heard real footsteps, steady and carefully placed, approaching in the adjoining corridor.
The short, stout body of the Mother Superior at Bay View, Sister Lucille Gamache, entered into the waiting room. I at once stood up, a small sign of respect, for immediately there was an aura about her that, though subtly, demanded respect and attention.
From the very start of our meeting, she unconsciously demonstrated her pious humility by continuously diverting the focus from her to the congregation of Bay View Convent/Villa.
"It's not a one-man show," she would say frequently, shaking her curly, grey hair, every time she was asked about herself. However, she was willing to reveal a few facts about her life prior to becoming Mother Superior.
Not revealing her year of birth, Sister Lucille, as she prefers to be called over "Mother Superior," due to its accompanying implications, described her birthplace as that of Lawrence, Massachusetts, a largely Catholic-influenced New England town. In 1956 she made the decision to join the congregation at Bay View, affiliated and run by the Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, with headquarters based in Quebec, Canada.
She then, as a Sister, entered into education as a teacher at St. Joseph's School. It was there in 1972 that she became principal, and she remained in this position for fifteen years until she left to be in religious administration. She was assigned by the Boston Dioceses to be the Mother Superior at the Bayview Convent Villa.
"Well, it wasn't something I campaigned for," she mentioned jokingly, when I asked her how she achieved the position. Instead, she was recommended and chosen for the honorous office.
She has the ability to be very serious, and yet she also clearly enjoys a good laugh. Keeping these qualities in balance certainly played an important part in her roles of a school teacher and then principal at St. Joseph's for so many years. From her steadfast countenance emanates the impression that if the occasion arose, she could very well assert herself and remain unquestionably in control.
She had just the occasion to do so the Sunday before our meeting, March 17, when a woman came running into the reception area from off the adjoining beach there in Saco Bay, frantically calling for help. There was, the woman told Sister Lucille, a person wrapped up in a blanket out on the beach who was responding neither to auditory nor tactitory stimuli. Sister Lucille calmed the woman, settled her fellow sisters, and promptly called 911. Minutes later the paramedics arrived and removed the inert individual.
The Mother Superior at Bayview mostly leads in her position by making the final decision when it must be made." Thirty-two sisters live here, and we all perform different duties in our ministry of hospitality, " says Gamache. The duties that she here alludes to are mostly daily house-chores, such as laundry, cleaning, cooking, serving, and gardening. However, some sisters work in the crafts and fine arts offices, while others work as registrars in the gift shop or receptionists at the entrance.
On the second floor, the hotel-like "Bay View Villa" where visitors lodge, the walls are peachy pink and provide a light atmosphere. Sister Lucille noted with a vibrant laugh that other sisters pick out the colors, because "I'm zero at that."
A noticeable look of pride came upon her face when she brought up the hard work that Sisters go to to keep the convent and retreat center looking clean.
"Cleanliness is next to godliness, and if you can't be clean in a convent, then where can you be?" she said very seriously. Indeed, the place looked immaculate.
She brought me through the cozy rooms of the Bay View Villa, through the linens room, the conference and recreation rooms, and then down to the basement, where there is a modest library, a music room, and several arts-and-crafts rooms. It was in this well-furbished basement floor that several of the Sisters labored over their personal pet projects, such as one who attaches images from gift cards and paintings to the back of spectacle-lenses.
"My favorite part about the job is that I like the variety," says Sister Lucille. She then brought me into the Rosary office, where another Sister was busy creating pink and yellow beads, made from real rose petals. The final products were exquisitely designed, beautiful to the eye.
Throughout the entire building there was a contagious quietude that seemed to seep into the very heart. Even in the busy kitchen at lunch-time (which they called "dinner"), the quietness was there among the workers, a quietness equaling contentment. The sisters and lay workers within the Bay View Convent/Villa appeared genuinely happy with their lifestyles, as well as with the Mother Superior, Sister Lucille Gamache.
Perhaps it is her experience-based capability that makes the Sisters happy with her. Perhaps it is her pervasive spirituality, or perhaps it is her nature of humility and submission. Or perhaps it is her pleasant, jovial nature.
Right before I left she was joking about the fact that only the day before there had been auditions out on the front beach for the Oscar Myer Weiner contest, where elementary school students sang to the camera about 'what they wish they were' (i.e., a wiener itself).
Winking at a fellow sister, Gamache chuckled and asked me, "Do you think they'd want nuns doing that?"
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