In twenty-six years as a nun Cecilia Bailey left the convent only to see the dentist or doctor. Now, Bailey is zipping around Cape Town in her little blue car after getting her licence at the age of 70.
She had failed her driver's test twice but decided not to give up. Sponsors helped her bear the costs.
At her first test she was so nervous she failed before she left the testing yard and at her second attempt failed even before getting to the yard.
But she persevered and on her third try was successful thanks to, she said, Layzelle de Lange, who had a community-based service called The Yard in Table View which provided space in which learner drivers could practise.
"A church gave me space in its parking area for people to practise in at R50 an hour," said De Lange, a driving instructor who also gives "free unlimited advice" to learner drivers.
In 1967, at the age of 22, Bailey became a nun and spent her days praying, printing and making communion wafers. Before she became a contemplative nun she got her licence and had been driving for two years. But she lost her "capacity to drive" while she was a nun and in 1993 she hung up her habit.
"I twice had major surgery on my back and I started to feel I would be a burden to the convent and so I decided to try and make it on my own outside, which was very difficult," she said.
But she found a job with an NGO advising the public on things such as applying for identity documents and became manager. But the Khayelitsha-based NGO closed last year due to a lack of funding and now Bailey is a reflexologist who can drive to her clients.
"It is such an honour and a privilege to be on the road."
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