Another Place to Call Home

By Lisa B. LaLonde

When I made my first visit to Hogar Elisa Margarita, I knew I had found another place that I could call home. I was visiting the girls’ home with two other representatives from the Mexico City Quilt Guild because a friend had recommended them as a possible recipient for the benefits of our annual quilt raffle.

As we sat in their reception room talking with Sister Rachael, one of eight sisters who runs the home for 75 “at risk” girls, we began to get a picture of the incredible good that goes on there. The home is a place where Mexican girls, from the ages of 3 to 12, are placed, usually by the police, after abusive situations in their families. Some of the girls’ families go through counseling with the sisters and the girls may return home. However, Sister Rachael explained that most remain in the home and few are adopted out. The Hogar, in fact, becomes their new home and the sisters, their new mothers.

As we continued our tour of the home, I was impressed by its simplicity, cleanliness and cheerfulness. Each of the girls’ beds had a personal doll or toy on it. The courtyard where they play was bright and colorful. The chapel, which was the first room proudly displayed for us, was bright and welcoming as well. But more impressive than any of these things were the girls themselves. We were first introduced to a giggly group of 5 year olds in their kindergarten classroom up on the roof. They were thrilled to meet the visitors, to say “Buenos dias!” in unison and to shyly pose for my camera. Some girls were disfigured: a broken tooth here, a shut-eye there, but it seemed they were oblivious to these reminders of where they had come from.

It was on our next visit that we got to meet the older girls who had been away at the local school during our previous visit. They exhibited the same cheerfulness, exuberance for life and pleasure at meeting the foreign visitors. They were working on their homework in the courtyard and playing, skipping and dancing for us, and asking endless questions of “How do I say this in English?” Sister Rachael stood quietly by, gently answering all of our questions about the home.

It did not take much for those of us who visited the home to convince our fellow Quilt Guild members that this would be a worthwhile charity for us to sponsor. I realized I had made up my mind from the first 5-year-old giggle. The sisters receive no regular support but, in all my visits to the home, there’s never been anything but calm trust that God would provide written beautifully on the face of Sister Rachael. Each time we visited the home bringing them support, whether it was a trunk full of food, money to pay the phone bill, a used washer and dryer, or payment for a new wall in the garden to keep the rats out, I felt somehow that I was receiving more than we were giving. I wanted to stay longer each time I went. I wanted to listen to the girls’ giggles, to watch the calm on Sister Rachael’s face, to see that little girls everywhere really are the same. Each time I left, I knew that if I ever ran away from home, my friends would find me there.

This is the second year that the Mexico City Quilt Guild has made a quilt to support this girls’ home. It will be on display at the American Society Fair this June. Your donation will not only give you a chance to walk home with this prize, but will also go to help Hogar Elisa Margarita to continue to provide support for some of the most needy and precious girls in Mexico.

For more information, please contact our Guild president. We thank you for your interest and support.

© May 1998 Lisa B. LaLonde Published in Amistad, the monthly publication of the American Society in Mexico City