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"An extraordinary visit at the end of '91", Liri Berisha recounts the first meeting with Mother Teresa

"An extraordinary visit at the end of '91", Liri Berisha recounts

Liri Berisha, the wife of Democratic Party leader Sali Berisha, recounted her family's acquaintance with the family of Gonxhe Bojaxhiu (Mother Teresa) in 1962-1963, who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. 

"I see on TV that an Albanian receives the Nobel Peace Prize, and upon receiving the Nobel Prize, she tells journalists that I am Albanian by blood. Not only did it impress me, no one thought that such a small woman would receive the Peace Prize."

I was looking at it with great surprise, how is this possible? My mother comes and says to me, do you know who this is? This is the daughter of Drane's mother, Gonxha, she says to me. I tell her, how is this possible? I felt a kind of pride, a kind of pleasure. Then it seemed very painful to me that in this atmosphere so climactic, censorship was complete and it was very painful.

While this news was being broadcast on TV, I remembered that in small circles there was talk about an Albanian woman who helped the poor abroad, that was it. But you should understand that you shouldn't have said that either, that an Albanian woman... these were before '79", said Liri Berisha in an interview for the Opinion show on TV Klan. 

She says that from that moment on, her desire was to meet Mother Teresa, but this was impossible due to the regime that ruled Albania.

However, the long-awaited meeting took place in 1991. Liri Berisha recounted this meeting.

"Ever since I saw him receive the Nobel Prize, I wanted to meet him, but it was a utopian desire, Albania at that time was totally closed. I met him for the first time at the end of '91, it was Christmas Eve and they told us that you have an invitation from Mother Teresa, and she is waiting for you to visit whenever you want. This was an extraordinary visit.

I couldn't wait for the day we would go there, it was a cold winter day. We went, one of the sisters opened the door for us and I was afraid I was confusing her. She accompanied us, took us to a room and in the middle of the room there were 4 sisters sitting on their knees, they had a bucket and mop and were washing the floor. One of the sisters tapped one of them on the shoulder, she got up and stood up with her hands open. It was Mother Teresa herself, I found it incredible, how is it possible that this Nobel laureate would sit down to wash the parquet?

 

 

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