Sybil's "Didja Know?"... The Truly Strange Origin of Mary Poppins!

For those of you who have always loved the Mary Poppins myth, you might be thrilled to know that she was based on an actual person, although NOT on a nanny... no, a NUN! Yes! Sister Mary Margaretta Popelia lived in the St. Bernathrum-on-Flummon Convent from 1872 till her passing in 1933. Having been brought there as a newborn foundling from a doorstep in the Winter, she grew up in the Catholic faith her entire life and became attached to the church's orphanage as a teenager. She was adored by children of all ages through her entire life, and though strict, she was gentle, patient, understanding, and a great source of entertainment to her wards. She told magical stories, sang songs of her own composing, and specialized in making puppets and marionettes which she used to stage rather extraordinary play-lettes with other nuns and many of the more talented children. Her only complication with church authorities were her tea parties where she would serve communion wafers with raspberry preserves as "Holy-Scones" and occasionally let a particularly handsome priest or monsignor get a fleeting glimpse of a scarlet petticoat under her scapular. Her passing in 1933 too was provocative. She didn't actually die, at least not in the presence of her fellow sisters. At the age of 61, while tending to her heirloom root garden in a pouring rain, she happened to be pulling strenuously at a stubborn parsnip of unusual length and girth. When it broke free from the ground finally, she fell backwards with such force that a passing gust of wind seized her wimple and ever-present umbrella and carried her high over the stone wall and up into the roiling clouds where she was never seen again. The children and staff were inconsolable, and it's said that the Mary Poppins books were secretly commissioned by the Pope, Pius XI, to bring some comfort to all.

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