She was in love. Her parents did not approve. She ran away from home in the middle of the night to be with the one she had chosen.
When Love required that she leave her country, Italy, there was no looking back. She remained in her adopted country, and never went back. She never saw her family again. With her beloved she lived happily ever after, as in the fairy tales.
Sounds like the stuff romantic novels are made of, right? It is a love story—with this twist: Our ‘heroine’ was real, the one she was in love with was Jesus and when she left her home it was to become a religious Sister.
I first met Sr. Flamenia when I joined our congregation in Canada. She had what we would call a “humble job.” She was in charge of the hospital’s laundry department. She also took care of one of our Sisters who had remained partially paralyzed after a surgery. She looked quiet and plain, but when I came to know how she had become a sister I was intrigued.
She wouldn’t speak much but I soon noticed two things about her: the constant quiet joy on her face and the patience with which she looked after the Sister entrusted to her care.
Some thirty years ago, when clothes were washed in common, I would see her pick up soiled clothes or linen without making a fuss or showing disgust. The way she worked gave dignity to whatever she did. She held herself with such serenity and grace that I could not think her work as demeaning or ‘low.’
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Sr Marie Gabrielle Riopel SCSM
