Life After the convent?

Kathryn C. Hulme wrote the book in 1956, and the movie was made in 1959. She died in 1981, born 1900

Marie-Louise Habets was the real nun who met Kathryn C. Hulme, the 2 became friends,the novel was written in 1956.

Hulme’s 1966 autobiography "Undiscovered Country" describes Hulme and Habets’ first meeting in 1945. Both were volunteers with the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) an international project working to resettle refugees and others displaced by World War II.
Hulme recalls in her autobiography how, at a training camp in northern France, she became aware of a Belgian female colleague who spent most of her time asleep. Even when awake, the woman, a nurse, was taciturn, solitary and preoccupied, almost antisocial. In time, however, the Belgian nurse revealed herself as a diligent worker, a good friend, and a woman with a secret: she had just left a convent after 17 years of struggle with its holy rule. She felt burdened and depressed by a sense of having failed.
The story of how Habets’s story became Hulme’s bestseller, and how the two women became partners, sharing a home and a life for nearly 40 years.

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As stated earlier, Sister Luke was actually based on the life of Marie Louise Habets. You can read about her post-convent life here:

http://www.camp-wildflecken.de/dp-camp-wildflecken/habets.htm

and here:

http://www.zoefairbairns.co.uk/nunsstory.htm



Photo of Hepburn and Habets here:

http://beinecke.library.yale.edu/digitallibrary/hulme.html

As most Hepburn fans know, Habets nursed Hepburn back to health after a serious accident on the set of The Unforgiven.

Habets died of natural causes in 1986, at the age of 81.