Mother Teresa: a biography

14 CREEK LANE
During her first months on the Calcutta streets, Mother Teresa’s spiri-
tual advisor, Father Van Exem, watched carefully to see how she was hold-
ing up. After talking, both he and she decided that it was time for her to
have a place of her own where she could start her work and no longer im-
pose on the Little Sisters of the Poor. But Mother Teresa’s first efforts to
find affordable housing met with little success. Often landlords would not
keep their appointments. Others, upon seeing the strange European nun
with no visible means of support, refused outright to rent to her. Mother
Teresa did not lose heart, but identified her plight with that of the people
she served. She later wrote:
Our Lord just wants me to be a “Free Nun,” covered with the
poverty of the Cross. But today I have learned a good lesson—
the poverty of the poor must often be too hard for them. . . . I
walked and walked till my legs and arms ached. I thought how
they must also ache in body and soul, looking for home, food,
help.”
4
Father Van Exem finally stepped in. He spoke to a member of a Bengali
Catholic family, Albert Gomes, who, along with his brothers, owned a
sizeable property at 14 Creek Lane in East Calcutta. One brother, Michael
Gomes, lived in the house with his family. Finally an agreement was
reached in which Mother Teresa would move into a room on the second
floor. She would pay no rent. The home’s location was later described by
Mother Teresa as “rich in its poverty.”
5
In February 1949, she moved into her new quarters, bringing with her
only a small suitcase. Her room was spartan in appearance: a single chair,
a packing case for a desk, and some extra wooden boxes for seats. The wall
was adorned with an image of the Virgin Mary, a gift from Father Van
Exem who had originally received it from Mother Teresa as a Christmas
gift years before.
Mother Teresa now had some helpers who accompanied her so that she
would not be alone in the slums. Charur Ma, a widow who was the cook
at St. Mary’s at Entally, often went with her on shopping trips. Mable
Gomes, the young daughter of the family with whom she boarded, also
went with Mother Teresa on occasion. Even Michael Gomes, when he
had time, went with Mother Teresa to chemists’ shops, similar to Ameri-
can pharmacies, to ask for donations of medical supplies. Father Van
Exem sent a parish worker to accompany her on some of her daily visits to
the poor and dying. She was even joined by some of her former students
4 4
M O T H E R T E R E S A

---

who came to visit her. Seeing her in her sari, some burst into tears. But all
were glad to see her and to offer what help they could.
Many years later, Michael Gomes recounted some of his experiences
helping Mother Teresa. On one rainy afternoon, Mother Teresa and
Mable Gomes returned from the slums. Both were soaking wet, and
Mother Teresa apologized for Mable’s condition. She told Michael that
they had just come from a home where they found a woman standing in a
room without a roof. Knee-deep in water, the woman had held an enamel
washbasin over the head of her sick child to protect him from the rain.
The landlord had broken the roof deliberately because the woman had
been unable to pay her rent for the last two months, owing him a total of
eight rupees. Later that afternoon, Mother Teresa hurried back to give the
woman her rent money.
On another occasion, when Michael accompanied Mother Teresa on
one of her begging forays, they again encountered rainy weather. Watch-
ing from the train window, they saw a man, completely drenched,
slumped under a tree. The two hurried to finish collecting medicines and
went back with the hopes of helping the man. However, when they
reached him, he was already dead. As Gomes later recounted, Mother
Teresa was in anguish over the incident, and the fact that many other
poor and gravely ill men and women, like the unknown man, might have
wanted to say something to someone, to have some comfort in their final
hours. The incident hardened her resolve to search for a facility where the
terminally ill could die in dignity and peace.
Gomes also remembered giving Mother Teresa extra food whenever
there was any to spare. Often she would ask him for extra mugs of rice,
which she gave away to starving families. Still, from time to time, she en-
countered hostility. Gomes remembered when a group of passengers on a
train, remarking on her strange nun’s habit, said that she was nothing
more than a Christian hoping to convert Hindus. For a long time, Mother
Teresa listened in silence. Finally she turned to them and said, “Ami
Bharater Bharat Amar” (I am Indian and India is mine).
6
The passenger
car was silent for the rest of the trip.