Mother Teresa: a biography

LIFE AT NIRMAL HRIDAY
Like the Motherhouse on Lower Circular Road, daily life at Nirmal
Hriday had a routine all its own. Anyone could enter Nirmal Hriday just
by walking through the door. The large open rooms remained divided into
two wards: one for men, the other for women. A simple board hung in the
hall listing the number of men and women currently being treated at Nir-
mal Hriday. In the beginning, the dying were laid on the black marble
floor. Soon, though, each room contained three rows of low iron beds,
with two rows resting on a raised platform. Behind each bed a number was
K A L I G H AT
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painted on the wall to help keep count of patients and beds. Patients who
needed fluids had intravenous tubes connected to various bottles. Those
patients who were dying were placed near the entrance of each ward, so
the sisters could better tend them. Nirmal Hriday was quiet, too, with the
only sounds coming from the sisters moving about or a medical treatment
being administered. At one end of the hall was a burlap curtain; behind
this, the dead were kept until it was time for burial. In many cases, after a
patient died, local religious groups representing the Islamic, Hindu, or
Christian communities claimed the bodies in order to bury the deceased
according to his or her religious beliefs.
From the day Nirmal Hriday opened, Mother Teresa kept a meticulous
record of the number of cases admitted. Upon admittance, each patient’s
name, age, and address were recorded; whether the patient died or was re-
leased was also recorded. For those with no name or home, the entry was
labeled “Unknown” with the date of admittance recorded. Over the years,
with the aid of better hygiene and nutrition among the population and
the construction of more hospitals and clinics tending to the poor, Nirmal
Hriday saw its mortality rate drop from almost 50 percent to 10 percent.
As word of Nirmal Hriday spread, volunteers came forward to aid
Mother Teresa and the Missionaries of Charity in their work. Hindu pil-
grims who came to worship at the temple now made contributions to Nir-
mal Hriday. A local businessman sent a delivery boy every month with a
supply of Indian cigarettes known as 
bidis
to give to the patients, and in
time decided to deliver them himself. On Sundays, some of the wealthy
members of Calcutta society came to Nirmal Hriday to wash and shave
the patients. Other volunteers came to help clean out wounds, cut hair, or
feed the patients. Still others cleaned the rooms, washing floors by hand
with a mixture of water, ashes, and disinfectant. Almost all who visited
left Nirmal Hriday transformed. For Mother Teresa, such experiences
were necessary to understanding the plight of the poor. “Don’t just look
around like a spectator,” she said to newcomers, “really look with your ears
and your eyes, and you will be shown what you can do to help.”
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Mother Teresa also instituted a rule that everyone from novitiate to
nun work at Nirmal Hriday. It was backbreaking work as one had to be
doctor, nurse, porter, and attendant at any given time. The hours were
long, usually extending far beyond the normal workday with 18-hour days
a common occurrence. There was little respite, for there always was med-
icine to be given, patients to be washed or fed, or prayers to be said. A
sense of humor helped to counter relentless suffering and death. But few
Sisters complained; more startling perhaps, many Missionaries of Charity
asked to work at Nirmal Hriday.
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M O T H E R T E R E S A

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