Nun recounts life of drugs, modeling before hearing call from God

From runway model and drug abuser to being a nun caring for the elderly, Sister Veronica Susan of Mary, a Little Sister of the Poor, has come a long way.

She has also come to Latham from Louisiana in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

Along the way, she found "the right man."

Katrina night

Just before Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans in August, 70 residents of the Mary Joseph Residence for the Infirm, operated by the Little Sisters of the Poor, had to be evacuated.

Sister Veronica Susan, then on the staff there, describes getting the residents to safety "as if we were all in this very small circle of light surrounded by darkness. No matter where we turned, it was as if we were walking into walls, like there was no way out, no place to go. It seemed as if there was no one to help us but God."

She is now at Our Lady of Hope Residence in Latham, where she is in charge of one of the facility's infirmary units.

Off to Oz

She describes her journey to becoming a member of the Little Sisters in a similar way. Her life before her religious vocation was filled with glitz, glamour and even drug addiction.

When she recalls her journey from the darkness into the light, she likens herself to Dorothy in "The Wizard of Oz."

"It's a perfect analogy, when you think about it," she said. "Dorothy asked the Good Witch how she could get back to Kansas, and she was told that she always had the power to find her way home. All she had to do was believe."

Early years

Susan, raised in the Midwest in a family of eight children, grew up in a secure home, where honesty and truth were important parts of living a good Catholic life.

"I credit my parents, especially my father, for giving me a solid foundation in my faith," she said, noting that the family daily attended Mass and prayed the Rosary together.

"Our parents taught us respect and reverence for our faith and the Church," she added. "We were always very much involved in our parish."

On her own

That changed, however, when she attended the University of Indiana during the late-1960s and majored in modern dance.

"It was a huge campus," she recalled. "A lot was going on then. There was political unrest, and the students were involved in all those issues."

She found herself caught up in the activism and the counterculture, which included drugs.

"In college, I worked as a store and runway model part-time, and taught dance whenever I could to pay my tuition," she said. "I managed the drug addiction so that it didn't affect my studies or my work. I occasionally attended weekend Mass at the campus Newman Center and thought I was in control of my life."

Changes

Sister Veronica Susan remembers that "one day, while going to Communion, I realized I was living my life as a hypocrite, that there was little, if any, honesty in my relationship with God. Slowly, I began to move away from the drug culture, realizing that I wanted -- and needed -- more prayer in my life, more dialogue with God. This was the beginning of my recovery.

"I needed to connect with the source, which to me was God. I was lost and unhappy. At 22, I felt old, like it had taken me a very long time to get to where I was."

After graduation, she went to California to teach dance and the arts, then on to Washington State, where she earned a graduate degree in psychology.

Back home again

She eventually returned to Indiana. She had kicked her drug habit and was searching for an end to the emptiness in her life.

"It kept coming back," she explained. "At one point, I was in a relationship with someone. We talked about getting married, but I knew that this person wasn't 'the right man' for me."

When she decided to volunteer as a nurse's aide in a nursing home, she discovered she loved working with the elderly. Through a casual association with the Little Sisters of the Poor in Indianapolis, she eventually decided to enter the order.

Called by Jesus

"The decision to enter was the result of a subtle call from Jesus to serve the poor in love, with Him, and a realization that this relationship was what I had been searching for for so long," Sister Veronica Susan said.

"When I finally found what I was looking for, it was within and through Our Lord. It's all about love and being loved, about finding Him. In the end, the love is the only thing that matters.

"I finally found 'the right man.'"

(In 28 years as a Little Sister of the Poor, Sister Veronica Susan has served in Illinois, New York, Massachusetts, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, California, Ohio, Washington, D.C., Indiana, Missouri, Kentucky, Delaware, Alabama, Louisiana and France.)

(2/9/06) [[In-content Ad]]