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DOSSIER : Saint Teresa

Captured Moments Revisited

David Wayne Dobson

Subject: Saint Teresa

Location: Calcutta, India 1996

Camera: Nikon 8008

Lens: Nikkor 85mm 1.8

Film: Kodak TMAX 400

Growing up in Calcutta in the 1970’s as a missionary kid was a horrific experience that I am forever grateful to have had. My life was eternally shaped and formed by these intense experiences.

There was an immense amount of poverty, pain, and suffering, and it presented itself to us at our doorsteps and car windows daily. At times I felt like I was in a see through bubble floating through hell on earth.

Overnight, a million displaced people were now living on the already over crowded streets of Calcutta, adding to the 16 million people living in a city originally built to accommodate 1000,000 people by the British a couple hundred years ago.

Yet amongst the worst of the worst, I was surrounded by amazing normal people doing extraordinary things for those most in need. Of those closet to me as a child were my parents and my two younger brothers, my father’s uncle and aunt, Rev. Mark and Huldah Buntain, and my Uncle Wayne Francis, (my mother’s brother), their friend Sister Teresa, and our friends at church and school. Everyone worked together; doing the best they could in this physically overwhelming and emotionally exhausting environment.

Calcutta was the British interpretation of what I was told to be more like “Kali-Kata”, a city named after the Hindu deity of death and destruction, the goddess Kali.

At this time, Calcutta was exactly that, a mega city infamous and globally accepted as the spawning ground of countless major diseases, death, and destruction, both physically and spiritually.

My childhood memories are more focused on all the good that was happening around me, my friends at school, and the ever-expanding mission station at 18 Royd Street that my father’s Uncle and Aunt had started, who we moved to Calcutta to assist.

As an adult, and after the passing of my Uncle Mark, I have had the opportunity of being able to return to Calcutta and spend time with my Aunty Huldah on several occasions, documenting the progress of the extensive missions project that has developed over the years, and along the way, spending time with my Aunt and her dear friend who we now referred to as Mother Teresa.

I was invited to join my Aunty Huldah and Uncle Wayne on a visit to Mother Teresa’s home in Calcutta, a very small and humbly appointed room at the Missionaries of Charity compound. It was to be a brief visit introducing some of our guests and a bit of catching up amongst old friends.

I remember climbing the narrow staircase in the horrid monsoon heat that led up to a balcony hallway in front of her personal living quarters. There were a few chairs already in place, but Mother Teresa was worried that there wouldn’t be enough seats for everyone, and was telling us that she would find a couple more chairs for us to sit on. She was apologizing that she was 86 years old now and couldn’t move as quickly as she used to.

Mother Teresa was asking us to be patient with her as her health had been continuing to fail her over the past year or so, a couple times nearly passing a way.

By the time she had finished saying all of this, my Aunt and Uncle had reached the top of the stairs where she was standing and watching us climb, turned left, and walked out onto the balcony. I had just reached the top portion of the staircase, a few steps to go, and now standing right at eye level with Mother Teresa.

For some reason I felt comfortable enough with her, and being out of ear shot of my Aunt and Uncle, I looked at her and said, “What, you are only 26?!!” at which point I realized what I had just said and to whom, and that I was risking my eternity by joking with this soon to be Saint whilst still on earth!

Fortunately, mother Teresa found this comment to be humorous and started laughing as she floated across the floor of the balcony, arranging chairs for everyone to sit on. I don’t recall her bare feet moving while she did any of this... Perhaps it was the heat!

Once seated, hand shakes and introductions having been made, the conversation quickly escalated with excitement, two single women, one catholic, one protestant, working together as they had done so for many years as close friends, and catching up on everything they had experienced since the last time they had seen each other.

I sat next to Aunty Huldah who was directly across from Mother Teresa who had her back to the wall of her tiny living quarters and facing into the courtyard filled with reflected soft light. My favorite light for portraits!

I don’t remember much of the conversation, but I do remember sneaking shots at the end of paragraphs, waiting out the pauses they both took as they pondered what they would do next in the projects they were discussing and collaborating on, then taking shots again when I felt their voices would drown out the camera shutter noise.

This is a photographer situation similar in concept to knowing when to run across an open field surrounded by snipers!

I tried my best to limit the amount of frames I shot and suppress the noise of the shutter and film advance from interrupting the flow of the conversation, but look who I was photographing!

They say that the eyes are the window into the soul of a person, and that is always where I focus first.

After capturing a couple close up facial portraits with various expressions mid conversation, I turned my attention to capturing the one shot I had to get, a picture of her hands. Being an animated speaker, Mother Teresa’s hands were always moving, to capture a portrait of her resting hand would quite a challenge.

Over the years I had shaken hands with mother Theresa several times. She always put one of her hands under mine, and placed her other hand on top of my extended hand. She always looked me in the eyes when she spoke to me, and she would smile back when I spoke to her.

I always wondered if this was some kind of Jedi trick used to make you forget the long list of questions you had curated on your way over to meet with her. It always worked on me!

I remember distinctly that her hands were grandmother soft, yet weathered by years of reaching out and touching the untouchable of humanity in the most degrading of life situations, always there to comfort.

Here was the hand that had touched a million lives, now in the center of my viewfinder. I discreetly fire away unnoticed, triumphant at last!

The image of Mother Teresa’s hand is a reminder to me that God has his hand in the middle of my life, and to never hold back or turn away from being a blessing to someone in their time of need.

Laughter filled the air one last time, then Uncle Wayne said a closing prayer amongst old friends. The memory was sealed by one of those warm and beloved handshakes, we said goodbyes, and moved on to the other work facing us that day.

This would be the last time I would see Mother Teresa and I am forever thankful to Aunty Huldah for the opportunity to sit beside her and capture those intimate moments of her friend on film.

Shortly after this visit, Mother Teresa would pass away, leaving me with the gift of these images, and her hand forever on my life.

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