Shortly before Christmas, a kind parishioner who lives down the hill from the convent invited the Sisters over for a New Year’s Open House. The Superior carefully wrote it on her calendar, noting that it would work out perfectly to simply have the Sisters stop in on the way to Spokane’s “First Night” celebration on New Year’s Eve, where we would be performing.
That evening, after loading the music equipment into “Vangelica,” our van, the Singing Nuns headed out. “Out” for us means navigating the winding road down the hill on which St. Michael’s stands; on a day like this, the icy road was, with its dreaded hairpin curves, one of the most slippery in Spokane.
Sure enough, on the way down the hill the van began to lose traction. By the time we reached our neighbor’s driveway, it was fishtailing, and so, instead of turning, we drove past it and parked at the bottom of the hill. Now we had to walk back up to our neighbor’s house. As we approached the house, we noticed that we were the first to arrive, as there were no other cars in the driveway yet. Our hostess greeted us at the door and graciously took our coats as we admired her lovely Christmas decorations and made ourselves comfortable in her living room.
We had been there chatting happily for several minutes when our neighbor asked, “So, what brings you out today?”
For a moment we were stunned and looked at her incredulously, hoping for a punch line. “Why, we’re here for your party,” a Sister blurted out.
“Party? I’m having an Open House tomorrow, if that’s what you mean.”
“You must be joking, right?” another Sister said. “This has been marked on our calendar for two weeks. Isn’t your Open House today?”
“No,” she laughed. “My New Year’s Open House is tomorrow, on New Year’s Day. Someone up there got it wrong.”
We couldn’t help but chuckle as more Sisters showed up at her door, and finally the Superior arrived.
But all’s well that ends well. Our hostess was gracious through it all and served us cranberry juice and delicious cookies before sending us on our way — with yet another invitation for more hospitality at the next day’s Open House.
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