The year 2006 held two milestones for Joyce Zemba, N.3. One, she was diagnosed with breast cancer and two, her first grandchild was born. Many women in her age group had grandchildren in high school or even college and with her diagnosis, Joyce wanted to record her life story for her grandchildren so they would know their grandmother had been a nun. For four years she would scribble in longhand something of her life in the convent and then, at her cousin’s urging, send the notes to him in Florida to edit on the computer. Going back and forth with many revisions and changes, her cousin urged her to publish them. The result? A Life Like Nun Other (Authorhouse / 2010).
After being diagnosed with breast cancer in 2006, Joyce Zemba decided to pen her experiences as a nun for her grandchildren. The result is her new book, A Life Like Nun Other. (Photo by Chris LaPelusa/Sun Day)
On the cover of the book is a ring with three letters inscribed on the inside; JMJ. They stand for Jesus, Mary, Joseph. The book will reveal what becomes of the ring.
“The book was my experience. There are many religious orders and I don’t want anyone to judge my experience and compare to other orders.”
As long as Joyce can remember, she always wanted to be nun. Life in the 60s was involved in the civil rights movements. The church was changing; the community was changing, Orders were changing. At that time there were eighty-nine other young girls in her class. Today there are 10.
“We celebrated our 50th this past summer.”
Most of the ladies in her class have gone into other service careers; nursing or teaching. When Joyce went into the convent at the age of 17 her father was very much against her going but he felt a certain amount of prestige in saying, “My daughter is a nun.”
It should be noted that by going into the convent, the girls got their education. The nuns would take the vows of poverty, (they owned nothing), chastity, and obedience (no choice as to where they were going to be working). After Joyce left at the age of 29 years of age, her father was not happy at all. However, after her father read her book, he said “terrific!” Nuns are not supported by the Catholic church or priests. They are self-supporting and independent. They live in ordinary apartments and don’t wear habits. Rome was not happy with these arrangements even though they did not financially support them. Joyce was not happy with that either. Since fewer girls were coming into the convent, they saw a problem in supporting the sisters. The thought was “If we can’t care for our elderly sisters now, how will we be taken care for when we get old? Girls were coming in groups of three or six, not eight nine.”
“My husband walked in when all of this was happening and changed my life. He was one of the many male teachers in the school where I was at. He was a teacher for seven years and then thirty plus years in Forest Park as a regular teacher. We never had a date and he asked me to marry him.”
She said “No, because I’m a nun.”
The Northwest Herald did a large article on the Zemba’s in 2000 as they posed the question in their Valentine’s issue, “What was the most romantic thing that happened to you?” Joyce answered, “Not having a date and being proposed to”.
Joyce started teaching after she left the convent in 1968 and after marriage and children. She received her Masters at Concordia in River Forest in l980 and became a school administrator, (Principal) in three different catholic schools, St. Irene’s in Warrenville, St. Gertrude’s in Franklin Park and St. Francis Borgia on the northwest side of Chicago. By the time she retired twelve years ago, the parents of the students were not very supportive; did not like the discipline.
Many people have asked Joyce, “Are you sorry you went into religious life?” And her reply, “I’d do the whole thing the same. It made me a stronger and independent woman.
I would have left the order even without my husband coming into my life“. Joyce continues, “If you expect to find scandals in her novel, those are big fallacies”. The book is very folksy.”
In her spare time, even though she never liked to sew, she is now a quilter and at one time was the vice president of the Sew & Sew’s. She’s a reader, enjoys line dancing, Tai Chia and for a time was involved in a Design group replacing furniture at Drendel Hall. Joyce is also a neighborhood representative, however, after eight years will be retiring.
