{"id":4317,"date":"2010-04-21T11:30:37","date_gmt":"2010-04-21T11:30:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/deaconsbench\/2010\/04\/gathering-no-moss-a-catholic-life-after-the-rolling-stones.html"},"modified":"2010-04-21T11:30:37","modified_gmt":"2010-04-21T11:30:37","slug":"gathering-no-moss-a-catholic-life-after-the-rolling-stones","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2010\/04\/gathering-no-moss-a-catholic-life-after-the-rolling-stones.html","title":{"rendered":"Gathering no moss: a Catholic life after the Rolling Stones"},"content":{"rendered":"

The name Mandy Smith may not ring many bells these days — but her teenage fling (and subsequent marriage) to Rolling Stone Bill Wyman made headlines decades ago. Now she’s set her life on a decidedly different course: <\/a><\/p>\n

\nMany people who encounter Mandy now know nothing of her headline-grabbing past. It emerged this week that her new life includes mentoring young girls at a church.
\n
\nShe rediscovered religion in 2005 and she says it saved her life. She utters phrases such as: ‘God is the only man in my life now.’ Religion seems to have given her a<\/p>\n

purpose. She was brought up a Roman Catholic. ‘I made my first communion,’ she recalls. ‘But when I should have been being confirmed, I was with Bill. I was fallen, I guess. But the great thing about the Church is that you can go back. It’s never too late.’<\/p>\n

She cites a note she received from a nun who had once taught her. ‘She said that Jesus does not look at mistakes I had made, or the times I had ignored him. Until then, I’d felt a terrible guilt about the life I’d led. I realised that there was another way.’<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Check out the rest. <\/a> <\/p>\n

<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The name Mandy Smith may not ring many bells these days — but her teenage fling (and subsequent marriage) to Rolling Stone Bill Wyman made headlines decades ago. Now she’s set her life on a decidedly different course: Many people who encounter Mandy now know nothing of her headline-grabbing past. It emerged this week that…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4317","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nGathering no moss: a Catholic life after the Rolling Stones - The Deacon's Bench<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/deaconsbench\/2010\/04\/gathering-no-moss-a-catholic-life-after-the-rolling-stones.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Gathering no moss: a Catholic life after the Rolling Stones - The Deacon's Bench\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The name Mandy Smith may not ring many bells these days — but her teenage fling (and subsequent marriage) to Rolling Stone Bill Wyman made headlines decades ago. 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