sewing sewing sewing

Being cloistered nuns, we’ve been spared many of the hardships people all over the world are experiencing due to the shut downs. Daily life for us is mostly the same as it was before the pandemic. One big difference is the amount of use our sewing room is currently seeing!

Our monastery is situated a few blocks from Overlook Hospital, where many of our sisters have received care over the years. A month or two ago Overlook sent out an email asking for cloth face masks. We already had the necessary materials so we got to work. Our chaplain, an avid quilter, has also been making masks daily. We are very blessed to have our volunteer workman who moved into our old guestroom when the pandemic started in order to continue helping us, as our hired employees cannot come. He’s been dropping off the face masks every morning so we don’t have to risk contact (and quarantining our packages as they are delivered!).

News of our sewing endeavors got out after we posted some pictures to our facebook page. First Jeffrey Bruno from Aleteia took up the story. Then we received a call from the National Catholic Register who also wanted to do a story. We started receiving calls and messages from all over the country, all requesting face masks. (Unfortunately we just don’t have the capacity to provide face masks for other hospitals.) The mother of an ICU nurse at Overlook asked us for face masks. He sent us pictures of the ICU nurses wearing them (as seen in the Register’s article).

Then we received a message from the Caldwell Dominican’s Infirmary, who take care of our elderly sisters when we are no longer able to. They were desperate for isolation gowns, and had been using ponchos and garbage bags! So we switched gears and started making isolation gowns as fast as we could. In a few days they were finished and sent off to the Infirmary.

At the same time an emergency shelter in Jersey City requested 100 face masks, so some sisters were busy sewing masks while others worked on the gowns. Now that everyone is supposed to wear a face mask when out of their house, we’ve been setting some masks aside for our volunteers. We are so grateful that this pandemic happened after we constructed the new sewing room!

Besides sewing we also were asked to make sick call kits for our brothers who are hospital chaplains in NYC. They asked for cotton balls dipped in oil and sealed in a plastic baggie. With everyone pitching in it was short work!