The Ladies of the Club

We had our monthly meeting at the Maltese Club this past Tuesday evening. I don't know if I had mentioned it prior to this, but I am now the secretary for the Women's Committee. So I take the notes (which there is not many of), read the past meetings notes at the current meeting and read correspondence (sometimes we get letters, etc.). So far it has been pretty good. You know, sometimes I lean towards the side of social anxiety, not sure why because once I am there, I am fine, but anyway...after thinking about the meeting all day and somewhat stressing out (for no reason whatsoever), I arrived and took my normal seat at the front.

We started with a dinner, it was chili night so there were 4 crock pots plugged in all filled with different chili recipes and huge baskets of bread. It was delicious, the ladies that cooked that day did a wonderful job. After dinner we all just sit around and talk until the meeting starts. This past week I sat next to a woman I had never sat by before although I had seen her at past meetings and had spoken to her (I couldn't remember her name though and still cant). She told me the most amazing story about when she first moved to the United States (in Maltese and English a 40/60 mix)....

She was 21 and had been married in Malta before moving the US with her husband and 2 small children, she was 8 months pregnant with her third child when they got off the boat in New York. Her husband had family in New York City so they decided they would live there. They had their own place and her husband had a job where he worked at night. She was scared most of the time when she first arrived because she did not speak English and NYC is another world completely compared to the small island of Malta. The Maltese people she knew were her husbands family and friends so she had some connections made, but not a lot. One night before her husband had gone to work she started getting labor pains and knew the baby was coming (having already had 2, she was not too concerned and did not tell her husband as she didn't want him to worry and needed him to work so they could have money). Later that evening after feeding and bathing her 2 young children she tucked them soundly into a bed they shared in the bedroom next to hers. She had then and decided she was too scared to go to the hospital in this new very large and scary city and she was going to have the baby alone and she started to pray to Mary to help her. She prepared her bed with newspapers, old blankets and towels and placed a large picture of Mary at the end of the bed and just looked deep into her eyes and kept praying for Mary to help her and the baby through what would be a long night ahead. After much pain (which she never cried out during as she did not want to scare the neighbors or wake the sleeping children in the room next door) she felt it was time for the baby to come out. With one big push, Mary appeared and pulled the baby from her and it was over. Her husband came home early in the morning to find his young wife sleeping with a newborn baby girl in their bed. He woke her and she told him the incredible story and he called his relatives who knew a Dr. to come and check on her. Amazingly, her and the baby were both fine..."the only thing was....The Dr. said I was crazy!" is how she ended the story with a laugh.

Incredible. During the entire story, this woman had her hand on my thigh and squeezed it when the story would get more intense. I feel blessed that this woman who doesn't even know me that well, shared this personal story with me. She told it like it was no big deal too - just blew me away.

I have heard many stories of strength and endurance from these women who moved to the US very young or who were in Malta during the bombings in WWII. I feel like these stories need to be shared with other women as I think we can all find them inspiring in some way.

PS - Robin, we all had a laugh at my large cross from Ash Wednesday photo - turns out I wasn't the only one who got marked so boldly.