Her doctor must have adjusted Mary’s meds. That is, she was more chipper this morning than she has been these past few months. Mary is one of the more reliable protesters outside the Planned Parenthood clinic on Commonwealth Avenue in Boston, and she comes with a whole backstory. A retired nun (whatever that is), her Catholic beliefs inform her position on abortion in general and our clinic in particular. It’s practically a full-time job.
She’s out there whenever I’m on duty, which is about once a month. The clinic is secretly quite fond of Mary, but because we’re on opposite sides, we can’t show it. She never does any harm to anyone, and once you get past the shouting of phrases like “look at the ultrasound pictures” and “we can help you,” screeched at the closed heavy door of the clinic, she’s really rather gentle. And we’re concerned for her wellbeing, the staff, security, and the sidewalk escorts like me. When she was treated recently for cancer, we quietly passed the news around to explain her irregular schedule.
But today, she was in top form, energetically yelling after the patients coming and going from the clinic, handing out her Rosaries and disinformation cards. We don’t normally speak to one another, the escorts and the protesters, even the regulars. We know them by name because security runs a make on those who hang around and…
