As Told and Written by Sr. P. Juliath
on
30.05.2001 

Translated into English by Clive.
Compiled by Alex

My parents gave birth to a son who was named felix. Unfortunately he lived only for 21 days and died due to ill health. Second child was Kalaimani. The third child was myself.  I, Juliath was born in the year 1955 on 16^th October at Lakchumangkudi government hospital in India.

At the age of 4, I joined Baby class at manambuchavadi, Adaikala annai convent. At the convent, an elderly Nun taught me to read and write my first lessons. During that time, I would go with my grandfather masilamani, to St. Antony’s church every Tuesday. I think it was around that time, Alphonse (my younger sister) was born. 

After that we shifted to mayavaram due to my father’s transfer. At mayavaram I studied my 1^st and 2^nd grade. My first younger brother, Britto was born at mayavaram. After that our family shifted to Valangaiman. Here, we stayed in a rented house costing Rs. 17/- per month. Here I completed my 3^rd grade to 5^th grade. Here I used to play with boys, many games like spinning tops and marbles. 

I was not good in maths. It was my mother, who taught me Mathematics. One day I had been to kaliaperumal koil with my friends to witness a function and returned only at 2.00 AM to my house. I received a good beating from my mother. 

When I was in 5^th grade, once I accompanied my grandfather and father for hunting. We started as early as 4 AM in the morning. I carried a bag with gunpowder and my father carried the gun. I was very excited. That day we hunted many cranes and other birds. 

I did my 6^th and 7^th grade at government higher secondary school. Kalaimani and I studied in the same school. She did not like to tell her friends that I was her younger sister. So she never used to take me to school along with her. When I was in 6^th grade, I won first prize for skipping, during the annual sports day. That day since I was skipping continuously for a long time, I fainted in the ground. So, they called my sister kalaimani and told her to take me home safely. While returning home, she kept on scolding me since everyone in the school came to know that she was my elder sister. 

When I was doing 7^th grade, kalaimani was doing her 11^th grade. During her final exams, she fell ill due to chicken pox. So daily my father and I, used to take her to school for her exams. This year, One day, I was bathing in a river with my mother and a few other women. That time all of us would have been washed away by the river but luckily we escaped narrowly. 

I came to tanjore to do my 8^th grade. But there was no vacancy in 8^th grade. So I had to go to mannargudi to study there. At that time I had to undergo a few hardships. But somehow, I decided to complete that year patiently. I often, had to go walking alone from mannargudi to serankulam to convey messages to my grandfather barnabas. For two moths I went to school walking, From salavaikaran to mannai. I had to walk a long way to bring good drinking water for the house. 

I joined 9^th grade at sacred heart higher secondary school at tanjore. I completed my 9^th, 10^th and 11^th grade in this school. Though I studied in the midst of hardships my parents taught me to live and behave with pride. During my holidays I used to bring firewood from the Mundhiri thoppu for the house. 

After my 11^th grade I went to a retreat named, “Call of God”. In that retreat, Rev. Fr. Gabriel spoke about Carmel convent. It was then, I decided to become a nun and I prayed for that. My friend Angela, who lived in the opposite house, and I decided to become nuns. Therefore in the month of may, we went to see Mother Superior thrice, who lived in the British convent at Tanjore. But we couldn’t meet her. At that time I was only 16 years old. But to be eligible to become a nun one should be 18 years old. Hence I stayed at home for two years, helping my mother. 

That time I learnt typewriting. I also appeared for the service commission exams. During those days I read all kind of stories. I used to goto church once a week. In 1972 my youngest brother Alex was born. Since I was at home that time, I stayed at the hospital with my mother when he was born. I was the first one to give sugar water to him.During that time my duty was to look after Vincent and Alex while my mother went sometimes to do jobs in groundnut fields. 

In May 1973, I went to madras to become a nun. That was my first trip to madras. For first two months I used to cry a lot, since It was the first time I had to live in a new and different environment. For one year I was allowed to wear coloured sarees which I had brought from home. Then I went to poonthamalli convent. There I was wearing only white sarees for two years. During these three years no one from home, came to visit me where as for some, there used to be visitors every month. But considering my family’s situation, I waited patiently. 

On 9^th May 1976, at Mylapore was my first ordination. During 1976-77 I studied PUC at stella mary’s college. Then in 1977-79 I did my “Secondary Training” in Dindigul. Then for two years from 1979-81 I worked as a teacher in a Middle school at Irudhayapuram. 

Then from 1981-84, I worked in a primary school as a teacher at Nagapattinam. Around this time Britto got married to jothi. From 1984-87, I worked as a teacher at Thiruthuraipoondi. In 1987 I became the Head mistress(HM) of a Middle school in Bangalore. There I remained as HM for six years till 1993. That time James was working in a Five star hotel in conoor and Vincent was working in mysore. Now and then they used to visit me. I was very happy during their visits. 

From 1993-94 I was the HM of a primary school at Kancheepuram.

From 1994-97 I was the HM of a primary school at Michaelpatty.

From 1997-98 I was the HM of a primary school at Kanyakumari.

Becoming a Maths teacher was my long tem wish. This wish was fulfilled, when I became a Maths teacher, at St. Lourdes High school, Dindigul in 1998. I worked here till 2000.

In 2000 I was transferred to Michaelpalayam a village in Madurai district. Here I am the HM of a Higher Secondary School till date. In my experience as HM this is the first time that 94 of my students are appearing for the 10^th public exams. 

At present I am spending my holidays with my brothers in Singapore.