Rev. Theresa Calcutta

“I’m so old that my childhood leaped out of my mind to say ‘hello’ again.”

Susie Blair

                                  

       

        Rev. Theresa Calcutta was a well-respected Bible Scholar for her knowledge of the scripture. She also has a great sense of humor and a gift for music, playing the clarinet.  As a gifted public speaker, she was often asked to lead large conferences across the United States.

In the 1950's she felt a strong need to become a missionary, and after much prayer and convincing the missionary board that a single woman in her thirties could go to a foreign land for God, Rev. Calcutta eventually became a missionary to Africa and Brazil helping those less fortunate, feeding the hungry and establishing orphanages.  She sacrificed her own health on too many occasions insisting that this was her gift to the world.  She preached self-sacrifice and love for others. 

Fellow missionaries soon became concerned about her health, and worried about her, but she insisted that the Lord had opened her heart to the needs for those less fortunate, so she continued to live a life as one of God’s angels on earth. Living in poverty so others could know the Lord.

            On her forty-ninth birthday, Rev. Theresa began showing signs of Alzheimer’s and was forced to retire after nearly setting the home she lived in on fire.  She now lives in a nursing home in a local community.  In her confused mind, the nursing home is still her mission field and although she irritates some of the residents, by playing her clarinet to gather them for evening vespers, most tolerate her for she is harmless and still has her sense of humor.

             At the nursing home she has developed a love of plants, flowers, and birds.  The home even provides a place for her to plant and maintain flowers which keeps her very happy.  Friends bring her birdseed.  

Whenever flowers arrive for someone, she will pester residents by asking if she can have the left-over plants to put in her garden for the birds to enjoy.  Even when dead flowers are thrown away, she will dig them out of the trash and re-plant them in the soil. She carefully places a nameplate next to the plant with a person’s name. All plants get into the ground whether they are dead or not and she waters them diligently twice a day. 

In the evening before dark, she will be in her garden playing her clarinet for the flowers and birds.  Most just smile and explain her away to visitors. 

This is one of the things that endears her to others, her love of people and flowers.

            At noon the meals are not eaten until she says a blessing and sings “His Eye is on the Sparrow, and I know He Watches Me.” 

            Bless her heart, she is one of God’s angels on earth.  A true treasure. 

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