LUKY;
ONE SUNDAY MORNING AFTER MASS, I PUT ON MY APRON AND WENT INTO THE KITCHEN.
I put on my wireless because, decadent though this may sound, I can't do much without the constant drone of music and human voices in the background.
Imagine my feeling of enchantment when I heard the beautiful singing of the sisters and pupils of St Elmo's convent, Umzumbe, that wonderful school where my Joe spent two such happy years. Soon we were all standing around the radio, food forgotten, and drank in the music and the voices of the sisters and teachers. It touched us deeply.
Tender touch
Although the sisters' voices were not identified, I'm sure one of them belonged to Sister Bernadette, who was in charge of the boys and wiped many a tear from my child's face. That's why I didn't begrudge giving her my statue of St Bernadette, which I bought in Nevers, France, at the convent where Bernadette lived after her departure from Lourdes until her death.
Sudden find
When I went to Nevers I browsed the shops. Suddenly I spotted a tiny bronze replica of a statue in the Lourdes Domain, Saint Bernadette, dressed in the habit of the Sisters of Nevers. Standing in a dusty little corner of the display window, it was just what I wanted.
The shop assistant looked surprised. I think the statuette must have stood there for so long that it was already regarded as part of the furniture and fittings.
Solid stuff
As I held it in my hand I was surprised at the weight. This was solid, none of your plastic ersatz.
A second surprise awaited me. The price, pasted to the back of the statue, was only fifteen francs. If I'm not mistaken, the rate of exchange at that time was fourteen SA cents per franc, or even less. That made my new possession the cheapest souvenir I ever bought in France. I'd paid more for two cups of tea and two sandwiches before.
When I had paid and left the shop, I had a strong feeling of conviction. That statuette had been standing there for a very long time, I just knew it, and it had been there waiting for me to buy it. I knew something else too - it wasn't for me. One day I'd find out to whom it really belonged.
Hidden paper
Back home, I placed the statuette on a corner of the mantelpiece and showed it to everyone who came in.
One day the piece of the card board which was pasted to the bottom came loose, revealing the statue to be hollow after all.
An archaeologist examining the Dead Sea Scrolls could not have felt more excited than I when I saw the yellow crumpled newspaper inside, dating back to the mid-thirties. It featured old limousines and the kind of armour-plated foundation garments women used to wear before it became fashionable to diet instead.
I smoothed out the newspaper and kept it in a drawer.
So that statuette had been fashioned nearly forty years earlier.
Revelation
One day at Umzumbe, while telling Sister Bernadette about Lourdes and Nevers, she said ruefully: "I've never been there myself, you know."
I knew then whom my little statue had been destined for, and later I sent it off to her.
It warmed my heart to think that the statuette had reached its designation at last.
The Life of Saint Bernadette
http://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=youtube+story+of+st+bernadette+of+lourdes&view=detail&mid=820F8B1730B661BB691D820F8B1730B661BB691D&FORM=VIRE1
With thanks to youtube
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