Sister Mary Elizabeth had been a nun for 24 years and lived an austere and mostly silent life mostly in her “cell” at a convent in Preston, Lancashire in UK when just a mere brush of the sleeve of a monk gave her a jolt that totally changed her life.
Friar Robert, who was visiting from a priory in Oxford, was left in a room alone with Sister Mary Elizabeth as he ate after her superior had to attend a phone call.
As Mary Elizabeth let Robert out of the door, she brushed his sleeve and felt a jolt she had never felt before. It got a bit awkward and the Friar left.
A week later, Friar Robert had a message for the nun. “Would she leave to marry him?”
"I was a little bit shocked. I wore a veil so he never even saw my hair colour. He knew nothing about me really, nothing about my upbringing. He didn't even know my worldly name," she told BBC.
Mary Elizabeth was born Lisa Tinkler and entered the Carmelite order - an ancient order of the Roman Catholic church - at the age of 19. She realized her calling in her teenage years and decided to join the church. A whole life spent in the service of God, the nun didn’t have an answer for the monk’s life altering question. He knew nothing about her, but she knew a bit about him.
She had heard his occasional sermons but said while it gave her a peak into her life, it didn’t impact her gravely. That seemed to have changed after their brief encounter.
"I didn't know what it feels like to be in love and I thought the sisters could see it in my face. So I became quite nervous. I could feel the change in me and that scared me," she told BBC.
What followed was quite tumultuous for the both of them.
Mary Elizabeth’s prioress didn’t take too kindly to her falling in love with Robert and a snappy interaction later, she packed her bag and left. This was in November 2015.
A rainy encounter with Robert soon after made them realise that may be they were not ready after all. Their internal tussle – the fact that their life had been about God for many years – caused them to reconsider and have several breakdowns, feeling completely isolated and helpless – soon after they quit their monastic lives.
“At that moment we both hit rock bottom and it felt like we should just take something like Romeo and Juliet and just end it," Mary Elizabeth, who was now back to being Lisa, recalled.
Lisa eventually found work at a funeral home and later as a hospital chaplain. Though he was upset by a letter from Rome telling him he was no longer a member of the Carmelite order, Robert, 53 when he met Lisa, was soon accepted into the Church of England.
They even got married, and now share a home in the village of Hutton Rudby in North Yorkshire - where Robert is a vicar of the local church.
While they are still adjusting to a life outside the monastery, the couple say that there are three people in their marriage – Robert, Lisa and Jesus Christ in the centre – who comes before everything.
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