“Oh it was lovely! I was nervous before I got on, but once we got going it was great.” Sister Cecilia celebrated her birthday with a party at her Island Bay house, where around 40 friends and family had gathered. While everyone was gathered for the celebrations, the true highlight of the day came when Sister Cecilia was kitted out all in leather and climbed onto the back of the motorbike. “Everyone was really excited about it,” she says. “We went for a ride around Island Bay and up Derwent Street.” “I’m not sure exactly how fast we were going, but I thought we were going pretty fast!” She and several other Sisters moved onto the Parade two years ago, while work was being done at the Home of Compassion to build new accommodation units for the Sisters after their previous house was damaged by recent Wellington earthquakes. Sister Cecilia’s neighbour Tony Maresca says he warmed to the “three beautiful nuns” straight away. “They moved in next door to us a couple of years ago and we became good friends and good neighbours. They are really lovely people,” he says. Tony says he joked with Sister Cecilia when she first moved in, saying she should come    for a ride on his Harley Davidson. “I said to her, when you get to 80 I’m going to take you on the motorbike, and she said, ‘Yeah alright!’” When the day finally came, Tony says he thought she was going to back out, but she was all for it. “I’m really pleased he did it because it really made her day.” “The best part was when I brought her back everybody was clapping and cheering, and there was the most beautiful look on her face.”

By Jack Fletcher

Courtesy Cook Strait News

Sister Cecilia is well known in Wellington because of the many years she spent nursing in our hospital.