12/7/2022,
Theresa was born in Suva in June 1933 to Hemant Ram Narayan and Jaanki. Her father owned his own Suva to Navua bus service and later ran a carrier business. The family initially rented in Belo Street. Theresa went to St Anne’s Primary School until the schools closed during World War II so that soldiers could billet there.
After the war Theresa went as a boarder to St Joan of Ark Primary School in Sigatoka. Fr Debois instructed her, baptized her and gave her First Communion. When she finished class 8 her father brought her to the small house he had built on land he bought in Sese St.
Her father arranged a marriage with a young Catholic man. They were both 19 years old when married at Sacred Heart Cathedral in 1952. They lived with her parents. Theresa began working in the cigarette factory in 1957. By 1960 they had five daughters.
Theresa’s husband went to England in 1962 to stay with her relatives, find work and bring the family over. He sent money home for three months. Then he disappeared to friends and stopped all communication with Theresa.
When her adopted brother got married the house in Sese Street became too small for them. With the help of her cousin, Theresa bought a small house and became a tenant at will in Deo Dutt Estate in Samabula. Two of her older children were married.
Rup Chand, a seaman, asked her to look after his mother and his two very small children, whose mother had deserted them to live with another man. He promised to send money regularly to her. Theresa agreed, partly because her three daughters were adolescents and she needed a man to protect them. Rup Chand was honest and treated her daughters with respect and care. She warned him never to criticize her Church or try to stop her from going to Mass on Sundays.
Like everyone else they had their ups and downs. If she was annoyed with him she would go to a film in the Ajanta Cinema after Mass on a Sunday morning. Worried about her, he would guess where she was and would wait for her to come out (Hindi films are quite long) and accompany her home.
When her father later moved to Toorak he signed over his land in Sese Street to her. The Housing Authority, to whom she mortgaged the land. built a standard house there. She paid a large deposit and then a weekly sum. She used to sell roTi parcels and do some sowing to make a little extra money. Rup used to contribute too.
When she heard God’s call to become Mother Canisius’ companion at Khrist Jyoti Ashram she gave her house and land to Rup Chand and his son.
Archbishop Mataca gave her permission in writing to live as long as she wished at the Ashram and to be buried there beside Mother Canisius. A companion in life and in death.
Life hasn’t been a bed of roses for Theresa. But she has been faithful.
by Fr. Frank Hoare
