The next time you start thinking that you're too old to start something new or finally pursue a long-deferred dream, consider the case of Chrystalla Petropoulou.
At age 92, Petropoulou became both the newest and the oldest nun at All Saints Greek Orthodox Monastery in Calverton, N.Y., on Long Island--a monastery that she helped build.
Petropoulou, who never married and has no children, has dreamed of becoming a nun since she was a young girl on Cypress, but family commitments, health issues and other life challenges got in the way.
Petropoulou persevered. In 1997, she deposited $13.00 in a bank account and started a fundraising drive that eventually raised hundreds of thousands of dollars and led to completion of the monastery in 2005.
Sunday services were held at the monastery once construction was finished, but the monastery lacked nuns, and by now Petropoulou was too frail to live there alone.
In August 2009, two young nuns in their twenties agree to move into the Calverton monastery, Petropoulou joined them in September, and other nuns soon followed.
At her induction ceremony, Petropoulou sat in a wheelchair as she received her black habit and an especially appropriate religious name: Sister Patience.
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