Twenty-four years after becoming a nun, it was a brief touch of the sleeve of a monk in the parlour of the convent in Preston, Lancashire, that changed everything for Sister Mary Elizabeth. The prioress of the order had taken her to meet the friar Robert, who was visiting from a priory in Oxford, to see if he wanted anything to eat. But Sister Mary Elizabeth's superior was called away to take a phone call, so the two were left alone.
Sister Mary Elizabeth had lived a devout, austere and mostly silent life as a nun, spending most of her days in her "cell". As she let Robert out of the door, she brushed his sleeve and says she felt something of a jolt. A week after the "thunderbolt" encounter, Sister Mary received a message from Robert asking her to leave the convent and marry him. Mary had joined the Carmelite Order at 19 and knew nothing about the world.
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Sister Mary Elizabeth eventually plucked up the courage to say to her prioress that she thought she had feelings for Robert, but the response she got was disbelief. She stated that the prioress was "snappy with her'' so she put a toothbrush in her bag, walked out and never went back. Mary and Robert did get married, and now share a home in the village of Hutton Rudby in North Yorkshire - where Robert has been made a vicar of the local church while Lisa works as a hospital chaplain. They are still on a journey to adjust to life outside the monastery.
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