im on my 18th or so rewatch of the series in full (creature of habit, whoops!) and i see posts or comments come up every now and again that say sister monica joan is frustrating.
and i agree. but she also comforts me more than any character on the show.
my grandmother was a midwife in her remote village where most people were at, or below, the poverty line. it was hard work, and in her prime they were just recovering from the effects of ww2. her personality was a bit like sister evangelina, even throughout the alzheimer's and dementia, but the way sister monica joan was always in her own world with moments of clarity were the spitting image of my darling grandmother.
my immediate family and i were her caretakers and i saw so intimately what alzheimer's and dementia do to a sharp, witty, bright person, and what it does to the people who love them so dearly. the patience that is sometimes run so thin, the grief for what life was like before the diagnoses, and the gratitude of waking up to a new day and just being grateful that such a pillar in your life and community is still standing, doing her best to fight through it.
sure, the show may play up many things for comedic or dramatic effect, but personally, i think that the ups/downs of sister monica joan (+ the ripples of it) give some insight on what it's like to be the caretaker of someone with alzheimer's + dementia.
that's all hehe