The Cradles of her Mind

Mother Mary Patrice worked in the machine room at Mount Saint Canice. She was one of the oldest nuns still working in the laundry. It’s difficult for me to know her age, as anyone over 30 seemed ancient to me at that time. I’d say she would have been in her late 80’s.
Mother Patrice’s job was to fold cloth napkins, or not. Most times, she snoozed. She seemed to like being at work. Our job was to make sure she had a glass of water and watch her work pile. Some days she’d work for quite a sustained period; other days, she was sleepier. Although her job was to oversee us as we worked on the enormous mangles; however, it was us who made sure she was okay.
Day in and day out, we’d feed hundreds of wet hospital and hotel sheets through the mangles. Two girls to both sides of the mangle. It took two girls to take the wet sheets from the baskets in which they were stored and two to feed them through the enormous cylindrical mangle. Two girls would wait for them to come out the other end, hot and dried from passing through the mangle
There was an art to taking them from the mangle.The huge steam-filled drum served to dry and press sheets and other flat laundry items.
One girl was at one end of the sheet, and another at the other. A quick fold in half, while inside out, then a flip and a fold of each side until it met at the top. One girl would stand firm while the other walked to her, folding the sheet in half with her arm, and then take it to a nearby folding table so she could fold it again. The result was a knife-edge fold. Then on to retrieve the next sheet.