Once in a lifetime, you get to meet someone special. For me, that came in the form of the High School Reunion last May. I had always wanted to meet Mother Teresa, and her passing precluded my ever doing that. But the next best thing happened, I met Sista Tanj-Gerina, a former classmate from high school, now from the Sisters of Mano a Mano from the upper east side of Palermo.
One does not know how to begin to describe the feeling one gets when first meeting the good Sista. She has devoted her life to good works and charitable ways, emulating Mother Teresa in so many ways. To try to describe them here in this limited space would be impossible, but suffice it to say that Sista Tanj-Gerina has turned the hell that was once East Patchogue, into a haven for the weak and humbled due to her ministry there.
Physically, you could describe Sista Tanj-Gerina as average height, with a wonderful smile, that welcomes one into her presence, a smile that says: “Don’t cross me, or else! The last thing I want to do is hurt you. But it's still on the list.” Having fallen (and I mean that literally) to her wrath, one is left with the reminder in the form of black and blue marks, for months afterward. And that smile, that smile that lights up the room, with a perfect set of teeth, (Except for the one front one that got chipped sliding on some ice at the request of a certain un-named party.)
Sista Tanj-Gerina speaks three languages fluently, English, Italo-Americano, and her hands! When she resorts to manual speak, she can speak at the rate of 50 words a second, and when she does, it is advisable to wear at least a helmet and some shoulder pads.
This nun is the subject of great admiration by many who reside in the sleepy hamlet of East Patchogue. She has opened up her heart and adopted countless little puppies, traveling back to her old stomping grounds on the upper east side of Palermo, and gathering stray and abandoned puppies, and physically sticking them under her saintly garments and into the USA, to live in complete happiness in her home in East Patchogue.
But her greatest assets are her humanity and humbleness. Often she has shunned the help of those that love her, and has been seen climbing ladders to cut down tree branches and clean roofs, and has also been seen as she descended them, head first!
But don’t speak ill of anything the good sista holds dear, for suddenly a dark cloud will build around her head, her eyes will become piercing and with great seriousness, admonish you for your thoughts warning that the wrath of God will get you!
It is my bet and fondest hope that the Pope, Pope Benedict will move for early sainthood even though she still lives! Then Sista Tanj-Gerina will dwell in perfect bliss in the Vatican, speaking to her little puppies in sign language at the rate of 50 words per minute!
As for me, I think I will leave town for a while.
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