Mother Teresa
Two brides from Shishu Bhavan, the children's home, with a flower girl, get dressed up for their wedding day.
The Missionaries of Charity also run leprosariums all over India. One of the newest, in Raigarh, some 300 miles west of Calcutta, was dedicated during Mark's visit. Mother Teresa gave a speech, and a free eye clinic was held. In her diary Mark wrote: "There is fanfare and a parade as Mother rides through town in a jeep. During the speech at the town hall she tells a story of a beggar who approached her recently. '"Everyone comes to ask something of you," he said. "Some people have something to give: I have nothing. But today I earned tenpence. Here, take it." So I took it. And that to me was much more valuable than the Nobel Prize.'"

ORPHANS ARE GIVEN A TRADITIONAL WEDDING

Not far from the hospital for the dying is a far more hopeful place. More than an orphanage, Shishu Bhavan is also an adoption center where abandoned children and infants find homes. Some of the hard-to-place children -- the crippled, blind and retarded -- may live their lives among the Missionaries of Charity.

While she was in Calcutta, Mark watched the nuns prepare a double wedding for two girls from the home (left). "The sisters dress the girls: polish is put on fingernails, powder and Indian makeup on their faces, henna on their feet. They wear red and white wedding saris and gold jewelry -- the nuns spent 5,000 rupees on each girl. The ceremony is a blend of Bengali and Catholic. Afterward Mother Teresa blesses them. People bring many gifts."

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