Positivity: Florida woman reflects on letters received from Mother Teresa

From St. Augustine, Florida:

Jun 19, 2011 / 01:15 pm (CNA).- Nearly 20 years ago, St. Augustine, Fla. resident Jean Hinson never imagined that something as simple as mailing a get well card would change her life. Yet the mere cost of a 29-cent postage stamp touched the life of the recipient of that card – Mother Teresa of Calcutta – so much that the two began exchanging letters over the next few months. Looking back on the experience, Jean, who is now 83, calls it “priceless.”

Jean knew Mother Teresa like most of the world – from afar, learning only bits and pieces about her life and ministry through books and articles. She had a great admiration for her tireless work with the poor and the sick.

On a rare visit to the United States in January 1992, Mother Teresa was hospitalized in La Jolla, Calf. with pneumonia and congestive heart failure. After reading the report in the St. Augustine Record, Jean felt she should mail a card to the hospital in La Jolla hoping to brighten the day of Mother Teresa. Less than a month later, Jean was nonetheless overjoyed when she received a reply and the first of several letters from her new “pen pal.”

“I thought to myself ‘I bet no person of her stature ever receives a get well card,'” said Jean. “People are sometimes hesitant to send anything to a person with celebrity-like status. But I found a card for her and wrote a short note telling her how much she meant to the world. I forgot about it and never dreamed I would hear from her.”

Jean almost threw the envelope away, dismissing it as another relief organization seeking money. But when she saw the Missionaries of Charity on the return address, she knew that someone from Mother Teresa's religious order had seen the card. When she opened the letter, she got an even bigger surprise. …

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