[heyheyhey]

This was the author's lame attempt at writing a novel, I think ;)

Maybe she grabbed it up with the intention of putting it in its proper place later; as a "tidy Sister" she didn't want the thing to lie on the floor?

The more significant (IMO) details are in bold text.

[juzcuz]

On her way down a Mercy Hospital hallway, a Sisters of Mercy nun instinctively picked up neatly folded linen lying on the floor outside a chapel door on the morning of April 5, 1980.
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Sorry to sound like Columbo but this is odd.. Not "neat and tidy". Granted there is alot left out and put into this senario to cause curiosity. But as it stands -

Why would A Sister of Mercy "Hospital" nun (possibly also a nurse) "instictively" pick up a floor contaminated/dirty linen lying in a hallway and go out of her way to put it in a chapel pew. Instead of "instictively" going out of her "neat and tidy" way to put in the Hospital Laundry center?