Benigna

My dear Friends

Last weekend I went to visit Benigna. Benigna is a sweet white haired 91 year old lady in whose house I lived for sixteen years. And what a beautiful house it is. 5 bedrooms and 3 reception rooms-a telly room, a dining room and an elegant drawing room complete with Blutner grand piano. Benigna still plays and has several pupils, and I remember all the music-making we used to do together, while she played and I sang.

Benigna is also very hospitable to all visitors, inviting the poor and the lonely into her lovely home. The house has an extended garden and at the bottom of the garden is a wooden hut which served as a chapel for The Little Sisters of Joy for a time. Indeed it was in Benigna's house that The Little Sisters of Joy officially began, on the 7th March 1999 in the upper room. Maryvonne le Goanvic and I got together and founded it and it has really grown, as youo know.

Sometimes now Benigna's memory is not what it once was and she needs reminding of people and places, but then she comes alive when the memories come back. Hundreds of people have passed through her house and been touched by it and there is a nice Indian family living there today-they look after Beninga and care for her.

So-happpy memories for me!
Shalom from
Sister Gila