Sister Gerard Fernandez is sitting in a meeting room at the Good Shepherd Place in Toa Payoh, Singapore, telling stories about her past in a voice clear, calm and soothing.
It was the early 1940s and she was then barely six years old.
Her late father - who was secretary to the chief justice - spoke impeccable English, and would put his children through enunciation drills while waiting for breakfast.
One morning, they had to recite a verse which went: "And I commit you to Sing Sing Prison, there to be hanged, drawn and quartered."
Sing Sing is a maximum security prison in New York City.
"I remember saying to myself 'I don't like those words and I'm not going to say them when my turn comes'," says the nun, now 78.
Instead, she recited a prayer honouring the Virgin Mary when her turn came. "I went: 'Hail Holy Queen, Mother of mercy, hail, our life, our sweetness and our hope'."