The 20-Hour Nuns

A Franciscan nun with a round, grandmotherly face stepped out of her office into the Los Angeles sunshine one morning last week, threaded her way between pieces of lumber and piles of bricks until she spotted a trowel. Picking it up, she laid a brick in businesslike fashion, smiled happily at the nearest bricklayer and said: "Thank God it is going up."

The work in progress was a $700,000, 65-bed wing for St. Anne's Maternity Hospital, a home for unwed mothers. The nun was Sister Winifred, 59, head of St. Anne's ever since she took charge in 1941. St. Anne's was an inauspicious waif itself in those days, consisting of one building, one 40-year-old cottage and exactly $39.39 in cash. Recalls Sister Winifred: "We couldn't even pay for the groceries." Now, the hospital operates on an annual budget of $107,000, maintains 42 beds, and has a volunteer staff of 32 doctors. Up at 4:30 a.m. for prayers and on call late into the night, Sister Winifred and her hard-working staff of nine have earned themselves the nickname of "the 20-hour nuns.''

The girls they care for have a nickname, too: it is UM (for unmarried mothers). Most UMs are under 20, victims of a lie, or of violence, or possessors of an over-generous nature. One of the most tragic cases in St. Anne's history: a ravished child of eleven who still believed in Santa Claus and carried a rag doll to bed with her each night. For the rest, "we get a girl who has slipped," Sister Winifred says, "but who is trying to do what is right."

In an average week in St. Anne's obstetrical ward, UMs give birth to eight infants. Sister Winifred usually advises adoption. Says she: "Not every girl can make it on her own with a baby. Both mother and baby have to go through a lot because some things never can be covered up." When a girl shows maturity and spunk, Sister Winifred sometimes advises her to keep her child. Wrote one such girl last week: "Two years ago, I and my family thought I had ruined my whole life. And here I am with a wonderful husband, a beautiful baby and another on the way. Each night I ask God to bless you and your work."

Says Sister Winifred: "The only thing we ever really worry about are the unwed mothers who never reach St. Anne's.''

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