Imagine entering the world at the age of 18, totally unschooled, unaware of social norms and interactions, and utterly alone. In the 1960s, this was the shocking experience of Patricia Walsh Chadwick. Join New Canaan Library in welcoming her on Tuesday, January 7, 2020 at 6:30 p.m. in the Curtis Gallery, when she presents a talk on her fascinating memoir, Little Sister. Please register to attend, online at newcanaanlibrary.org.
In Cambridge, Massachusetts in the 1940s, Leonard Feeney, a controversial (and soon to be excommunicated) Catholic priest, founded a religious community called the Slaves of the Immaculate Heart of Mary. The Center’s members—many educated at Harvard and Radcliffe—surrendered all earthly possessions and aspects of their lives, including their children, to him. Patricia Chadwick was one of those children, and Little Sister is her riveting account of growing up in the Feeney sect. Forbidden to see or speak to her parents, Patricia yearns for a different life, challenges the Center’s draconian restrictions, and is eventually banished from it. Forced to face the world alone, without skills, family, or money but empowered with faith and a fierce determination to succeed on her own, which she does, she eventually rises to the upper echelons of the world of finance and investing. A tale of resilience and grace, Little Sister chronicles, in riveting prose, a surreal childhood, and does so without rancor or self-pity.

Patricia Walsh Chadwick was born in Cambridge, Massachusetts. She received her BA in Economics from Boston University and had a thirty-year career in the investment business, culminating as a Global Partner at Invesco. Today she sits on several corporate boards, and she blogs on issues social, economic and political. She also mentors middle school girls at Our Lady Queen of Angels School in Harlem. In 2016, she founded and is the CEO of Anchor Health Initiative, a health care company that serves the needs of the LGBTQ community in Connecticut. She is married and lives in Connecticut with her husband. They have a daughter and a son.