Anything to get away (if only for a day) from Monica Lewinsky, Kathleen Willey, Linda Tripp et al, and to recover from the St Patrick's Day invasion of Irish politicians eating and drinking Bill and Hillary Clinton out of White House and home.
A picture of a 90-year-old nun taking "an agility test" in her walker and the headline: "Baltimore nuns aid science by donating brains to Alzheimer's study" in the Washington Post looked like the perfect escape. No sex scandals, no politics, no Northern Ireland squabbling. I had stumbled on what is becoming famous medically as the "Nun Study" into ageing and Alzheimer's. Since 1990, of the 678 nuns who signed up for the study, 272 have died but thanks to their brains, the researchers know more about what may protect the brain from diseases.
The nuns are the largest brain donor population in the world. But would the nuns not have worries about the whereabouts of their brains when the Last Trumpet sounds? Not Sister Maria Mercedes Hartman, who is 83, gardens a lot, and still drives. "The Lord can restore anything I need for the resurrection. Anything that's missing," she says.
Sister Marie Xavier Looymans, also 83, was working as a teacher up to three years ago and now does secretarial work at Notre Dame College in Baltimore. She told the Post reporter she had absolutely no doubts that heaven exists. "That's what I'm working for."
As for giving up her brain, "I'll be up there, lookin' down while they're doing it. I won't feel it."
The man behind the study, which now has world renown, is Dr David Snowdon, of the University of Kentucky medical faculty. He found that when he started his research on the nuns in Minnesota for a pilot programme in 1985, "It shattered all my stereotypes of how 80 and 90-year-old people are supposed to behave. They seem so mellow after a lifetime of contemplation. They are living saints and sages."
In 1990, when Dr Snowdon moved to the Sanders-Brown Centre on Ageing, the study was expanded to include the older nuns of the School Sisters of Notre Dame all over the US. The religious order was founded 150 years ago in Bavaria and came to the US to found schools. The 678 participants in the study were 75 to 103 years old when it began, and the average age was 85. Almost 90 per cent were or had been teachers. They all agreed to annual assessments of their cognitive and physical functions, medical examinations, blood donation for genetic and nutritional studies and brain donation at death for neuropathologic studies. The sisters also gave the researchers full access to their convent and medical records. The presence in the convent records of autobiographies of these now old women have been very interesting for the research because they seem to show that those with lower linguistic skills in their 20s were more likely to suffer from dementia later. This could show that the causes of Alzheimer's are present from an early age.
The incidence of minor strokes seen in the brains of nuns who had Alzheimer's could mean that the symptoms associated with the disease were instead caused by the strokes. The nuns are also an ideal homogenous group for the researchers because of their almost identical lifestyles: no smoking, little or no alcohol, no pregnancies, similar housing, health-care and diet. Thus many of the factors which confuse the findings of other studies are eliminated.
The nuns are tested regularly for balance, hand strength and mental agility. They can be asked to write a short essay, set an alarm clock, open childproof bottles, and select the right coins for buying an item.
One of the testers, Sister Gabriel Mary Spaeth, says that the part the nuns dread most is when they are asked to remember 10 words they have just seen on flashcards. "They've all been teachers and to them seven out of 10 is 70 per cent, which is not very good. But to us, seven is very good."
Sister Mary Gilbert Hefele (90), who had taught for 40 years, said after a test: "My writing was terrible. . .I was ashamed." She had no problem joining the Nun Study, telling the Post, "I had given myself to God. I felt I could give my brain to help somebody else have a better life."
She says it helps to live "in a convent like this, where you're going to the chapel to visit the Lord all the time. You want to be with the one you love, don't you?"
Sister Virginia Geiger, who is 83, still teaches two philosophy courses at Notre Dame College in Maryland. She says that "intellectually and spiritually this is the best time of our lives. I wouldn't change it for the world."
And as far as Ms Lewinsky is concerned, Sister Virginia asks: "Why didn't she just say `No'?" Even in the convent you can't get away from Monica.