Sr. Guadalupe-the nightingale working tirelessly for lepers for 64 years

TURA: Over 64 years ago, in 1950, a young Spanish nun from the congregation of the Missionaries of Christ Jesus landed in Tura from Kohima (Nagaland) to begin her missionary work in Garo Hills. A year later she stepped inside the only leper colony in Garo Hills located at Tura to take care of the leprosy patients.
She has never looked back.
On Thursday (December 3) a special church service was held in the chapel of St. Xavier’s convent at Tura to celebrate the diamond jubilee of 91-year-old Sr. Guadalupe- a messiah of God for the lepers.
It was on this very day in 1953 that Sr. Guadalupe took her final vows as a nun to carry on her missionary work with the lepers.
“When I first went to the colony I was moved to see so many patients suffering from the disease. There were as many as 75 lepers with wounds all over their bodies. Our day began early morning and sometimes stretched into the late evening hours,” recalled Sr. Guadalupe while speaking to The Shillong Times on the sidelines of her diamond jubilee celebrations at Tura.
Many of the patients had been brought to the colony by their families and abandoned.
Those were extremely difficult times for the missionaries in Garo Hills in terms of both manpower and resources. There were only two other helpers to assist Sister Guadalupe in her work with the leper patients.
“Every day we would clean and dress the wounds of 75 patients. Some were unable to even move so we gave them a bath and fed them too. We frequently faced scarcity of bandages for the dressings. So we use to cut our extra clothes we carried to the colony and use them as bandages because we had to clean the wounds every day,” recalled Sr. Guadalupe.
She would continue her work for the next six decades seldom taking even a day’s break from the colony.
“There were times when we use to find her exhausted with fatigue and we would try to make her stay back at the convent to rest but she would refuse. She would worry as to who would take care of her patients at the colony and after taking a light meal in the daytime return to her work,” recalls Sister Elizabeth, who has worked closely with Sr. Guadalupe.
“Loneliness is very heavy for those who are left behind by their families. Even after they are cured they were not taken back. It is very sad. We try and make them feel at home,” says Sr. Guadalupe.
Her simplicity and willingness to reach out to each and every one has created a bonding amongst the inhabitants of the colony. Today they help one another in all spheres of their daily activities.
“If someone passes away in the colony everyone comes forward to help. They themselves make the coffin, dig the grave, make the wreaths and arrange for tea and snacks. There is a sense of belonging among them,” says Sister Guadalupe.
Leprosy is now a curable disease with hardly any new cases but there are as many as 45 former patients who have lost their limbs to the disease and have nowhere to go having been abandoned by their families.
Social stigma has been associated with leprosy for much of history and even in today’s world continues to be a barrier.
Despite losing their limbs and inability to do any work, the government does not provide them with any support since they have been cured and are no longer looked upon as patients.
Help continues to be extended to them by Sr. Guadalupe who has been providing them regular supply of rice, dal and cooking oil for the last ten years after rallying donors from abroad who regularly send funds for their care.
One such donor is none other than the younger sister of Guadalupe who even after retiring from service many years ago continues to send her monthly pension for the leper colony.
The decades of hard work and the support given by friends and well-wishers of Sr Guadalupe has helped to transform the lives of the lepers at the colony. Today they successfully cultivate pineapples in a big way and their produce is the most sought after not just in Garo Hills but beyond Assam as well.
“With the earnings from the pineapple cultivation they are able to purchase their requirements and also repair their thatched dwelling houses once a year,” points out Sr Guadalupe.
There is also a primary school successfully running in the colony and some of the children whose parents suffered from the disease have achieved success in life.
“One of the children has completed his medical, another nursing and there are others who have gone on to complete their post-graduation despite so many difficulties they faced,” says a happy Sr Guadalupe.
She will be turning 92 in February 15, but age has not deterred her from her work.
“I love them, which is why I stayed on. I never had any regrets and I will never leave the colony,” says Sr. Guadalupe.
Her biggest worry is who will take up the mantle after her.