Anastasia & Nellie Lavallee, Massachusetts

My ex Italian husband went to a primary school run by nuns. He was traumatized, that would have been through the 80s, and ditto for my own mother.

Brenda Lichty-Steedley Same for my grandfather he said it was the cruelest religion and if that was what Gods love was like he wanted no part of it.

That’s pretty much what my uncle said.

Some nuns were the devil in disguise.

Don Stapleton So were priests, as we have been finding out.

Lena Gargano-Reddy may not be her mama, but the eyes tell tell the story, they are very much more sunken and the nasolabial creases are 20 years deeper than on the nun.

Candy Guinn Riviello nothing to do with the years. It’s the life. I’ve taken in clients in their 60s with no creases.

I don't see that at all. The mother shows her age in her neck, around her eyes, the sagging jawline. The daughter isn't pretty, but that doesn't make her look like a woman in the age range of her mother.

The description of the picture says mother and daughter. And the mother doesn't look exactly overjoyed.

Looks like they could be siblings..

Yep! My son went to Catholic schools - kindergarten through college. Nuns were disappearing as teachers, even when he was in grade school but he loved the nuns. (Not as much the ex-nuns who left, married, and came back to teach.) But he still has priest friends from high school and college.

So, on my Dad's side, the ancestors were Catholic (in Canada). Large families - often up to 15. One of the children became a nun, one a priest. Every family. Even today, there are many, many nuns and priests in the family.

Anna Kakol Wow, yes you are guessing badly! These ladies go through years as novices and many are weeded out who aren’t there for the right reason. Very complicated vocation.

yes , it’s not so customary anymore but families often did give “kids” up into holy orders and nunneries and some of that was economics , some a choice made by children but depending on the times and territories , it was forced . The nuns probably won’t admit anyone under 18 these days but it was common practice once to take in the unwanted ( whatever the circumstances) and raise them for convent life . Earlier than that , it was also a means to dispose of an inconvenient wife ( especially by the nobels that paid for her keep till she died ). It might have been a purely political affair or a perceived treacherous act . These women didn’t necessarily take vows but they were kept as prisoners with basically no where else to go . Later on the nuns ran orphanages with very little oversight that should have been there under the auspices of the Catholic Church . In the states and other countries , the full ramifications of that program of providing social welfare , is just starting to make its way into into public scrutiny. Many babes were taken from their mothers without permission and some didn’t make it out alive .

Victoria Matheus I’m not guessing badly . I have my own horror stories to contend with on this topic . It is like I said , those that haven’t been through it , think everyone else that has , is lying . If there are methods ( today ) for screening and if those are enforced , that’s great but I can assure you that was not always the case even up until the 60s and early 70s. And we didn’t live in an age of instant “prove” as phone cameras are a modern convenience . Useless perhaps ( some of our stories are ) and they remain kept with us until we pass on . But still , they need to bring awareness if nothing else .