How are the nuns ay Bethanie depicted in the book, Five for Sorrow, Ten for Joy?

The nuns at Bethanie, while suffering under the anonymity of sisters in general, still emerge as real, vital, helpful religious women. There is a piquancy about the origin of their coming to Bethanie. No one except the Superior knows the origin of each sister. The nuns are left to wonder who among them come from distinguished families and who are former convicts. The community of Bethanie emerges in the novel as a group of real, down-toearth, dedicated women, offering each female convict still in prison a better life at whatever level the prisoner herself may choose — even to sharing life and work with them for good. It is especially heartening to realize as one reads that Bethanie itself exists in France, and that its members continue their saving work.