They met in first grade — seven decades ago. Meet the Saintly Sisters
Jackie Corcoran-Mahoney can still remember how the school smelled of old wood.
The strict nuns at St. Dunstan's School in Fredericton were almost angelic: superhuman beings who didn't need food — or the bathroom. It was a strange new world for Corcoran-Mahoney to navigate just shy of six years old, but luckily, she wasn't alone.
More than 70 years later, she still isn't.
They call themselves the Saintly Sisters, a group of women who first met in the first grade at a Catholic school — now transformed into condos — on Regent Street in 1950.
They gathered for a celebratory brunch at a Fredericton hotel on Saturday to exchange childhood memories and celebrate their collective 80th birthday.
"We all separated. We didn't all graduate. We didn't end up the same, but we started out the same way," Corcoran-Mahoney told Information Morning Fredericton ahead of the event.
"I think that's the bond that brings us together, [that] we started together."
But their first reunion was in 1994, which welcomed all alumni — and some of those imposing nuns. From there, the group of women who first met more than 40 years prior decided to stay in touch.
Now, the nine still remaining try to meet up at least once a year. Most still live in Fredericton, but Corcoran-Mahoney makes the trip from Halifax for the visit.
CarolAnn Doherty is the strong-arm of the reunions, organizing events and keeping the group friendship's lifeline from fraying.
She grew up as an only child in a single-parent household, so she remembers being reprimanded for talking too much during her days at St. Dunstan's.
"Well, I was alone, so who do I talk to but the other kids in the classroom?" she said.
She's the mind behind that first reunion in 1994. Sitting around with a few of the friends she'd kept in touch with — even after departing for boarding school in the fifth grade — they wondered what it would be like to have a school reunion.
Information Morning Fredericton's Jeanne Armstrong speaks with CarolAnn Doherty and Jackie Corcoran-Mahoney to learn more about how the friendship between the Saintly Sisters has stayed alive all these years.
One committee and 18 months of planning later, 139 folks gathered to reminisce about their childhood at St. Dunstan's.
"From that we decided, we have this bond. We've had this bond for many, many years. Let's try to stay together."
For fellow classmate Patricia Earle, St. Dunstan's has remained part of her life in ways she never would have expected.
Shy and quiet, Earle spent only two years at St. Dunstan's before transferring to a school on Smythe Street, so she was surprised to receive an invitation to sit on the committee for the 1994 reunion.
But there was another surprise coming. After St. Dunstan's was converted into condos, Earle moved into what used to be the school library in 2007.
"God has a sense of humour," she said.
Earle lived on the top floor for 15 years before moving into a unit on the first floor, where she loves to sit in her chair by the window and watch people walk the same street she walked with her classmates all those years ago.
The year they all turned 65, Earle invited the Saintly Sisters to her apartment to eat cake.
"It's like I've come full circle," she said. "That's my home now. I've made it home and I'm very happy there."
