Since your all a bunch of WEIRDOS I thought you might enjoy reading about The Milton Rd. Nun. She's been around for a few years now and lives only a few miles from my folks in my teenage stomping grounds. She dresses (is dressed by her owner) depending on the season or the latest movie or news story. This week she is dressed as Batman. A few months ago she carried a Light Sword when The Sith opened here. She often wears the colors of the Brisbane sporting teams. I see her depending on which way I drive to my folks place and it's always fun to try to guess what she will be wearing!




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Sister Mary Angeline: Milton Road mystery
Author: Brisbane Institute
Date: 08 August 2001


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Sister Mary Angeline
enjoyed the Fukuoko
world championships.



... I won't become an advertising whore...
by Kelly Ventress

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She stands defiant in a big glass window in the front of a house on Milton Road. Plastic skin, glass eyes and painted-on smirk glowing down at the traffic. Her name, as I discovered this week, is Sister Mary Angeline, and she is the Milton Road Nun. To say she is a mannequin would be a bit degrading, I think. She has such a gloriously sixties department store chic going for her, and the outfits - magnificent. Every Sunday night she appears in the window in a new outfit, ever so carefully placed over her habit, remarkably managing to hold up all manner of things with her pivoting PVC arms. She has foraged into many occupations (her chef and 40's nurse-with-bedpan outfits are two fine examples), and hobbies (she once was a decidedly French artiste - painting a picture of her view from the window, draped in a smock, proudly showing her works on an easel, palette at the ready). She has, some weeks, covered even more imaginative territory - her gun toting, poncho wearing cowboy made me laugh out loud as I sat on the bus, and, as Mexicana nun, she shook those maracas like there really was no tomorrow. Sometimes she appears in theme according to the week's events; she's voted in the state elections, put up a tree at Christmas, and gotten a little tipsy on New Years' Eve. She's been glamorous in diamantes for the Academy Awards, only to appear the next night as a Gladiator, silver sword held high above her habit.

Every Monday morning on the way to work I would eagerly await the moment when I would glimpse her from grid-locked traffic, wondering what on earth she'll be up to this week. But one question remained - who was she? How did she come to be a nun with so many guises? Where did she come from? Were my friends and I the only ones who'd noticed her? So one evening I thought I'd pop around and have a few words with the residents of 341 Milton Road, Auchenflower. However, after a little deliberation I decided that a lot of the allure of the Nun was her mystique. Her anonymity allowed me to run the same questions through my mind every day I passed by, her mystery comprised a lot of what made her so special. So, I decided to conduct an interview with the saintly Sister Angeline herself. She's a quiet one, not given to running off at the mouth, nevertheless I was able to ask her a few things about herself.

When asked where she came from, I was delivered not with the answer I expected - she didn't graduate from window modeling at David Jones, but rather, I was told she came from Hoboken, New Jersey. From a young age she had run away to the circus (one can only speculate as to whether or not this is where the soft spot for costumes originates), and then decided to join a convent (she thought she looked a 'bit of all right' in a habit and decided to give it a go). She found her way into the Milton Road window just before Christmas last year. When asked why she dresses up so ritually, it becomes clear that Sister Angeline has quite a sense of humour. She is quite aware that "a Nun in a habit doing anything is funny...people loved Sister Act, didn't they?..." When asked what her favourite outfit was, she thought perhaps it had to be Gladiator nun. She's quite a fan of films in fact, and is considering a few more ventures into movie-related themes (another of her all-time faves is Psycho, so we can only hope for a 'shower stabbing scene' outfit). As for Gladiator Nun, it was the shining silver sword she liked best...and the glory of holding up that Oscar to thousands of commuters too, no doubt.

I coyly asked her if I could have a sneak preview of next week's outfit, but to my disappointment she hadn't thought that far ahead. She's often not sure of what she'll wear next week, sometimes having a bit of a panic on a Sunday evening. She is, she told me, totally open to suggestions and will consider any requests that end up in her mailbox. Sister Angeline tends to fancy outfits that tie in with what's going on in the local area, or those that have a second meaning - just recently she appeared as a construction worker, just in time for the demolition of the tennis courts only a block away.

Sister Angeline proudly showed me the fan mail she has received - something she gets fairly often, which is proof, I suppose, that there are plenty of other commuters out there who love their Monday morning trip to work as much as I do. Most of them are anonymous, her fans seem to acknowledge her mystery, and play along with retaining theirs in return. One Easter card contains an excessive amount of "God Bless You's". I wondered if there had been any objection from the Catholic Church about her ability to manipulate her dowdy church clothes; but no, Sister Angeline says she has received no comment whatsoever from religious authorities. She says she'll never dress in anything tasteless, and said she feels as if she has something of a moral responsibility to upkeep, what with being so much in the public eye and all. One fan letter she received was addressed "Dear Sister or Mother Superior" which we both had a chuckle at, as Sister Angeline says she has no particular ambition to move up in the ranks, which is lucky I suppose, as she lives in front of a window and doesn't get out much, if at all.

She's received dozens of letters, all of which are carefully blu-tacked to the corner of the window upon their arrival in the letterbox. Sister Angeline is happy to wear donated outfits ("there's no shame in hand-me-downs," she tells me wisely) but claims that she won't become an "advertising whore". She's vehemently opposed to blatant product placement and says that she'll only promote things she personally enjoys, like the theatre.

We chatted for quite a while, Sister Angeline and I, and although the mystery of her presence is no longer that, I really did realize just how special she is, and left her window that evening hoping she'd never stop coming up with new costume ideas. To my relief, it seems she'll be around for a while yet.

Sister Angeline is a pleasant soul - drop her a letter sometime, suggest an outfit, point her out to your friends. And make sure you remember to look up when you drive past.

Article first appeared in Semper, Issue 4 - reprinted here by permission of the author.
You can email Sister Angeline at the_nun@pacific.net.au and keep watch for her website - coming soon.


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Her website is..... the-nun.com

Hey Lar.have you ever come across any of her relatives in N.J.? Wonder if she ever met Frankie?

Louise, I once dated her sister

That certainly doesn't surprise me Nathan. Was it in Hoboken?? Do you remember the sisters name? Next time I head down Milton Rd. I'll wave to Sister Mary for you.
I'll let you know what she's wearing from time to time.