Sister Helping Person in Need
"Angel of Laughter, Simon the Jew" is a story taken from a
a chapter in my upcoming book
about my 25 years volunteering with
Saint Mother Teresa and her Sisters around the World.
This story takes place in Mother Teresas Gift of Love
House in San Francisco, California, which housed Homeless
young men dying of Aids Disease.
"Angel of Laughter, Simon the Jew!!"
by Judy Joy Jones
“I hate you!” screamed a voice from behind me. Quickly turning around, I saw a young novitiate standing at the door, her eyes widening. A man in a hospital bed had thrown a Bible at her.
“Take your religion and shove it. Do you hear me Sister, Shove it!” he yelled at the wide-eyed young sister.
If I were suffering as few of us can even imagine, had no home or family, and was barely 20 years old and dying of Aids Disease, I am certain I would be extremely frightened and even angrier.
“Don’t mind John. He is always screaming at me too,” said the man in the bed next to him. There was a picture of Mother Teresa on the wall above his head. She is smiling.
“My name is Simon, by the way. I just turned 20 last week.”
“Happy Birthday,” I told Simon.
“I’m a Jew,” Simon continued, “and when Mother Teresa was here at Christmas time, she asked me to carry the baby Jesus during the ceremony. I explained to her, ‘But Mother, I’m a Jew.’ ‘Doesn’t matter. We are all the same,’ Mother said to me with a big smile.”
“I thought it would be a big statue of Jesus, but guess what, Joy?” he said. Holding out his hand and pointing to his palm, he said, “He fit right here, in the palm of my hand. Jesus was no bigger than two fingers. Where they dug that statue up, I’ll never know!” We both burst out laughing.
Simon’s short life would be over in one week from the day we met, but the love he showered on the rest of the dying young homeless men in Mother Teresa's Gift of Love House in San Francisco California will endure forever.
Simon magically made their pain disappear for a few moments, except for their bellies which were sore from laughing too hard at the jokes he told every second. I will never forget "Angel of Laughter, Simon the Jew!”
c jj 2021
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