It's more than six decades since Shirley Leach swapped her debutante's dresses for a nun's habit and changed her name to Sister Agatha. But the “wild fury” she felt as a 21-year-old on the threshold of life at what she saw as God's command to enter a convent is easily recalled. “It was the end of all my dreams, they were taken away in a single moment,” she said.
Now, at the age of 85, Sister Agatha has no regrets about the course of her life. “To have been asked by God to be in that particular relationship with him is the most amazing thing. I never doubted where I was meant to be.”
The former socialite has shared her story in a ghostwritten autobiography, A Nun's Story, published this week, which chronicles her transformation from Shirley to Agatha. Despite her vivid recollections, the text cannot convey her cut-glass accent which locates her origins firmly in the British upper class.
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