Simple Visits, Deep Friendships

By Joseph S., on mission in Argentina

We have one friend named Marta who is from Paraguay. Both her husband and son have passed away, and her only other daughter doesn’t speak to her very much. She lives alone with her dog Luna, and hardly leaves her house. Her home is very simple and doesn’t have much lighting. I remember the first time I visited Marta she was sitting in her living room in the pitch black. It had rained a lot that day, and so her roof was leaking like crazy. After talking to her for a bit, she began to cry as she spoke about how much she misses her mother, her son, and her country. She eventually settled down and we even managed to make her laugh.

We visit Marta pretty often, but in October we invited her over for lunch at our house for Mother’s Day. We knew that she would be all alone on such a beautiful day and filled with even more loneliness. She agreed to come, but I’ve been told there were times in the past when we’ve invited her for lunch and she accepted but never came. So, I went with Sofia to knock on her door and accompany her on the walk to our house. We waited to see if she’d actually come out of her house, and lo and behold, she did! She even dressed up for it too! We ate lunch and prayed the Rosary with her on our back patio. It was such a beautiful afternoon.

Marta left very happy that day, and I realized that it is moments like these that really give a good idea of what our mission is exactly.