(694) A Nun's daughter by Paul Grondahl

This article was found in the March 2001 issue of Reader's Digest. Quite an unconventional topic!

All of us are quite used to hearing about the devastating statistics Aids created in Africa alone. When my family went to visit orphanages in northern Thailand, it was not unusual that the orphans lost one or both parents to Aids. Poor hill tribe girls were sold or lured into the flesh trade in Bangkok or the southern towns. Some do survive and return home to the north, only to have children and die way before their time.

Here we find an ordinary devout Catholic girl of Italian descent, Mary Ann, who struggled with her vocation. She joined the Sisters of Mercy as a novice at age seventeen. Ten years later she left with the intention to meet the right man, get married and have children. It was not to be, she took her final vows after 1979. Her close boy friend, Mike, actually came to the service.   I don't even attempt to understand her choice! It is difficult enough for her to decide to choose a religious life. I wouldn't expect Mike to understand and support her. Yet he apparently accepted her choice very well.

Then she went on to serve God. Through the years, she was fulfilled and yet there was a certain ache she could not define. When Barbara arrived in the Farano House, she was spellbound by the lovable child. We have a child whose mother was dying of Aids and whose father was in prison. Barbara was HIV positive. In the Catholic sanctuary, she was well loved. Mary Ann first applied and became Barbara's foster mother with the permission of the order. Later she adopted Barbara. In a few short years, HIV turned into Aids and the little girl passed on. In the little girl's memorial service, Bishop Hubbard said,"Barbara's is truly a fantastic love story. A triumph of the human spirit and the conquest of goodness over the forces of ignorance, fear, sickness, suffering and even death."

It just seemed that Barbara and Mary Ann were meant for each other. Against a backdrop of ordinary lives and difficult circumstances, theirs were the silver and golden threads high lighting what God could do with us when we surrender ourselves into his loving and capable hands.