Thought for the Week

Mara Nivad-Davy

One cold morning when I worked with the Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity on the streets of Calcutta, or Kolkota as it is known now, I went to Sealdah Railway station to reserve my ticket for a short holiday to Darjeeling to follow in the footsteps of Mother Teresa.

It was cold and foggy, which was unusual for Calcutta. My rickshaw taxi dropped me near the station and I tried to go inside to the ticket counter.

Suddenly, I saw a middle aged woman lying on the ground at the entrance of the men's toilet. She was suffering from leprosy and the fingers of her hands were falling off. One of her feet was also falling off and hanging by its sinews and she was trembling from the cold. She was trying to cover her body with a torn blanket, so that no one would see her deformity or her leprosy, but she failed every time.

She must have wished for someone to come and help her, but no one helped. I forgot all about the cold and quickly ran to help her cover her body. She was barely able to whisper the words "thank you".

I flagged down a taxi and the taxi driver, seeing the predicament sped through the streets of Calcutta waving a red flag or handkerchief out the side window of his car so that we could get to the Mother Teresa's house called Kali-ghat, which was also known as the house of the dying.

On the way there, I discovered the woman’s life story. Her name was Mara Nivad-Davy and she had lived a life of abject poverty and horror.

When we got to our destination, I carried her through the throngs of people into Mother Teresa's house of the dying. I cleared a spot for her on one of the beds.

As Mother Teresa sisters cleaned and cared for her, I couldn't stop looking at her feet. Her left foot had been completely eaten away by maggots and, as we cleaned it many more maggots were taken out. The bones were sticking and some of these had even been worn away because Mara had used her foot to drag herself along.

The foot was eventually amputated and Mara died in my arms a few days later.

That event changed me a lot. God gave me the dream to help the poor and those in need in our world. I realised that a dream is one thing, but trying to achieve it is another thing altogether.

From that day, I promised I would, at least, attempt to help lots of people. I am still doing my best to do that but I need assistance. Sure, isn’t that what life is all about: helping one another! 

Thought for the week

As your thought for the week, if you see anybody who requires help, don't just pass by; try to help them.