Mother Teresa: a biography

“HOME IS WHERE THE MOTHER IS”
Fortunately, Drana Bojaxhiu was possessed of an entrepreneurial spirit
and soon set about rebuilding her life and supporting her children. She
handcrafted embroidery and was soon not only selling her handiwork, but
marketing the various types of cloth and carpets for which Skopje was fa-
mous. Lazar remembered accompanying his mother to the textile factories
where Drana met with the managers who sought her advice on designs
and materials to boost sales.
As the family’s financial status improved, the Bojaxhiu household once
more became a place where the poor could come for a meal and some-
times a bed. As soon as she could, Drana again began to set aside money
to help those in need and, despite her busy schedule, still found time to
visit the poor. At least once a week she called on an elderly woman whose
own family had abandoned her. File, a poor alcoholic woman, also bene-
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fited from Drana’s care and largess. Six orphan children came to live in
the house. Drana continued to impress upon her children the importance
of helping the less fortunate. When you do good, she told the children, do
it quietly, without calling attention to your own virtue.
Drana always found creative ways in which to instruct her children.
Summoning them one day, she asked them to inspect a basket in which a
number of good apples rested. She then placed a rotten apple in the bas-
ket and covered it. The following day, she had the children inspect the
apples. They discovered that many of the apples, so luscious the day be-
fore, were now beginning to rot. The moral was simple but profound: it
takes only one corrupt person to corrupt many others. She then reminded
her children to stay clear of bad company lest they suffer the same fate as
the good apples in the basket. Drana’s influence on her children was ex-
traordinary, especially after their father’s death. Despite her need to work
and manage a business, and despite her devotion to the poor, Drana still
spent time with her children, who benefited immeasurably from her guid-
ance. So powerful was Drana’s presence that Gonxha recalled “Home is
where the mother is.”
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