May 31, 2004 / 22:00 pm
In 1994, after years of drinking and carousing, 34-year-old former Marine truck driver Jo Ann Doane entered the Trappistine monastery.
Her complicated and roundabout journey that led her to answer a call to religious life is briefly recounted in the book "Unveiled: The Hidden Lives of Nuns" by Cheryl L. Reed and was published last Sunday in several US newspapers.
Doane had been baptized Catholic but her parents did not attend mass. As a teenager, she had an interest in Eastern religions and was touched by a book about monks. She said this teenage dream of being a monk on a snow-capped mountain in Tibet carried her through 18 years of living out in the world.
“Her desire for the divine, however, was outstripped by a weakness for partying,” wrote Reed. After high school, Jo Ann joined the Marines for six years and drove transport vehicles.