The pandemic has been prevailing in the world for a long time, but I was hoping that it would not come to us to Piszkowice, this quiet village of the Kłodzko Valley, and yet it did not forget about us, experiencing us with its existence.
It all started with the deterioration of the health of our Sister Superior Lucy. I thought this condition was related to chronic cancer and metastasis that we had known about for a long time. We knew that this transition time would come one day, but none of us expected it to come so quickly and with covid infection. The sisters also began to fall ill, but after the doctor’s visit, we calmed down a bit.
Due to the lack of improvement in the health of the sisters, despite the treatment, we decided to test all the sisters. We were waiting for the results to know about our health. The next day we heard that we were all infected except for one eldest sister. A quick decision – isolation so as not to infect children and other workers was taken. Fear gave strength to move the sisters and place them in other rooms of the house. The condition of Sister Superior Lucia was deteriorating all the time. From Tuesday, she received respiratory and pharmacological support. After receiving a positive result, Sr. Mother Superior immediately launched all contacts to help our children and employees. You could notice all the time concern about the children, us and the employees.
The disease continued to progress, her condition worsened by the hour. We watched helplessly, counting only on God’s Mercy. I did not care that I was also infected as I did not have typical symptoms, it was important for me to be with our sister. The night of August 1-2 was the worst. I was with my sister until 1:15 am, then sister Paula changed me and then the transition to the other side began. Our powerlessness, how to alleviate suffering and enormous shortness of breath … When I came in the morning around 6:05 am sister Lucy was conscious all the time, she was breathing with difficulty, she asked how long will it take, because it’s already four hours? The last spurt: “I want to go to bed” (my sister was sitting in the armchair all the time, because she had great shortness of breath due to lung metastases). At around 6:55 am, knowing the time to walk was near, I went to get the rest of the sisters. Sr. Superior Lucy was looking for us, we started the prayer, the Chaplet of Divine Mercy, which she prayed so often. After the prayer, at 7:40 am, she went to the Father’s House full of peace, on the feast of the Mother of God.
Then came impotence, a moment of breakdown, what will happen to the children, how many children and workers are infected. Who will take care of who will help? We cannot, we are isolated! All that remained was a silent prayer with all of ourselves, as the disease began to give more and more symptoms. The answer came in no time. Sr. Alma from Świnoujście will come to you, she will help you. I immediately shared this message from the Provincial Sr. with the Sisters, I hope that she will be able to cope with the situation. On Saturday, after positive covid results, I only made calls to my friends asking for prayers for our intention. All the time I turned to Saint Joseph, the Founder and the late sister Lucy for help in our difficult situation. There were people who responded quickly to our request for help. Soon Sister Vianey from Branice also came to help. God, thanks to You, the situation is slowly stabilizing, but there are still no people to look after the children. I was only able to ask St. Joseph for help. As always, I was not disappointed at his intercession.
Then came the next days when we tried to pray together but we were physically unable to do so. The disease progressed from day to day in individual sisters to a different degree, they had sometimes better and sometimes worse days.
The only thing we had in common was being together for a while, or having meals together, or sitting next to each other for a while, helping, supporting each other.
Sister Lucy was a mobilization for us, her attitude of struggle, service until the end of her days, despite my impotence, I went to my sisters to be with them. Here I understood how important it is, apart from prayer, to be together with the sisters. Prayer is a very important link, but being, understanding and mutual concern of the sisters added the willingness to overcome difficulties related to the disease. There were very difficult moments, I did not know how to pray, somehow the prayer did not stick together. The Lord made me quickly understand that He was with me again. One text message I received and here a reply to my current condition, then a phone call from a friend, a clergyman and another tip: “Praise the Lord in every situation …”! And here the Lord entered again with His grace, like a father who loves his children very much, from that moment I started reading my favorite Psalms again and again and every day He gave me the answer to my given situation (Ps 38: 2-4 Ps. 46 1-4 Ps 23, 13 Ps. 28: 1-2 Ps 66, 9-11 Ps 119, 25-27 Ps 134 Ps 111 7: 9). Thanks to His word, more was coming every day.
Sr .M. Klara