SISTER RITA How an Atheist Became Guardian Angel to a Nun By Elaine Goodman On rare occasions life sends us someone very special who steers us onto a different path, a new way of seeing our lives. When I quit my job as an adjunct instructor and art gallery director at the local community college in May 1996, I tossed my office stationery into a blender with water, added some dryer lint and turned the pulp into paper. Some of the paper became collages with playful, abstract designs and titles: “Us and Them,” “Flight,” that sort of thing. I had been an oil painter, experimenting with all sorts of materials but had never taken a course in etching. I thought the small sheets of paper I had made would lend themselves to etching. The Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Arts offered a part time summer etching class and I signed up. Every Tuesday I hopped onto a bus from my suburban small town in southern New Jersey and rode to Philadelphia to learn about etching, aquatint, and drypoint. One very hot, windy day on the way home from the etching class I waited for the bus on Market Street in Philadelphia, watching specks of dirt swirl up from the gutter to hitch a ride on my white shirt. At the crowded bus stop, a very tall, handsome, gray-haired woman in a white suit paced back and forth near me, looking anxiously at each bus that passed. Beads of sweat had formed on her cheeks. She turned to me and said, “I’ve been here for two hours and my bus has not come by.” I knew all of the buses to New Jersey came at least once an hour and asked her, “What bus are you waiting for?” She said her bus was the 610 for Brighton. “There is no such town in New Jersey and no such bus. Where are you trying to go?” “Mantua,” she said. “That is the town next to mine. The bus you want just passed a few minutes ago, the 410 to Bridgeton.” She looked uneasy. I grasped her arm lightly and said, “My bus is due soon. Come with me and I will drive you where you want to go.” As we settled into our seats on the crowded bus, I learned that her name was Sister Rita. She was a Dominican nun whose career included a lengthy stint as a college professor in Castro’s Cuba. She knew Fidel Castro personally. Her mother was a Roman Catholic convert. Sister Rita was the only girl in a houseful of boys. All but one of her six brothers had gone into the Catholic clergy. One was a bishop in the Far East. She was traveling to a friend’s house in New Jersey; that evening she would tell jokes at a priest’s retirement dinner. Telling jokes at various Catholic events had become her part-time specialty. On the bus, she regaled me with very clean, very funny jokes. “An Irishman said, ‘For our 25th anniversary I took my wife to Ireland.’ ‘What are you going to do for the 50th?’ ‘I’ll bring her back.’” Sister Rita periodically asked if she was boring me. I was laughing my head off. I began to realize that I was in the presence of a human being entirely pure, someone to whom subterfuge and calculation were totally foreign. I was in the presence of holiness. I knew I had met someone I would remember forever. Creative Intersections: Where Story Meets Innovation A New Quarterly Feature Research shows that reading literary fiction enhances emotional intelligence, empathy, and creative thinking—skills increasingly vital for association leaders navigating complex organizational challenges. A 2013 study in Science revealed that people who read literary fiction performed better on tests measuring empathy, social perception, and emotional intelligence. Meanwhile, Harvard Business Review reports that leaders who engage with narrative fiction often develop more nuanced approaches to problem-solving and strategic thinking. With this research in mind, Association Chat Magazine proudly introduces “Creative Intersections”—a quarterly feature showcasing original fiction, poetry, and creative non- fiction that illuminates the human side of organizational life. Each piece is carefully selected to spark new ways of thinking about leadership, community, and connection. Our inaugural story, “Sister Rita: How an Atheist Became Guardian Angel to a Nun” by Elaine Goodman, explores themes of unexpected friendship, trust, and the bridges we build across different worldviews—elements that resonate deeply with association professionals working to unite diverse communities around shared purposes. 28 Creative Intersections
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