Recently I heard a wonderful story about Mother Teresa which filled me with awe and inspiration.  Tony Robbins, the nationally known motivational speaker and coach, had the occasion of meeting Mother Teresa, while she was in Tijuana, Mexico to help the poor and the dying.  On meeting her, he asked:  “What gives you ecstasy, or what juices you up?”  Tony was a little embarrassed for asking this saintly nun such a question and felt he had put his foot in his mouth.  Mother Teresa just laughed and said:  “What gives me ecstasy is to see a person die with a smile on their face.”  That is probably not number one on most people’s list, but it was what brought joy to Mother Teresa.

She wasn’t always that way.  In fact, when she was forty years old, Mother Teresa was a school teacher in India teaching the children of the wealthy.  She was leading a comfortable and normal life for a nun of her education and professional status.  One day while walking the streets of Calcutta, a man who was dying tripped into her arms begging her:  “Sister, sister, please help me!”  She took him to three different hospitals hoping they would take care of him.  All three hospitals refused to take the man in because he was from the lower caste of their society.  Finally she took him home where a few days later, he died happily in her arms.  This was a life changing event for Mother Teresa.  On that day she made a promise to God that no one in the range of her influence would die without dignity and love.  This became the standard that she lived by the rest of her life.

She is indeed an inspiration to all of us who serve the sick and dying.  I’m sure I can say without a doubt the rest of the hospice team sees this as their standard also:  That every person we serve has the opportunity to die with dignity and love.  That is our ultimate purpose and goal as a hospice team. 

Luigi Persichetti is the chaplain for Southern Utah Home Care and Hospice and the minister of the Unity Church of Positive Living in St. George. 

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