Mother Teresa of Calcutta and Therese Williams developed their friendship through prayer and sacrifice.

Born in 1974, the 15th child of David and Charlotte Williams, Therese contracted spinal meningitis in her second year of life. She went into a coma for several weeks. She had to be on a respirator 24 hours a day and spent long months in the intensive-care unit of the Children's Memorial Hospital in Chicago. Despite all the medical efforts, little Therese experienced pulse drops and her heart rate declined unpredictably.

One day, without warning, Therese's heart stopped. A team of specialists rushed in, gave her heart stimulants and applied extreme lifesaving techniques. All the Williamses watched the scene, alarmed.

“I had experienced many tensions in my life,” recalls David Williams, “but never the total exhaustion, the complete and utter wringing out of all emotions I endured that day. We prayed all we could — who knows how many rosaries — intensely and unceasingly for so long that we were totally expended.”

The family went home late that evening. They sat down for the meal in silence, too tired to speak. The phone rang. Nobody moved. Perhaps doctors were calling to give them bad news. Finally, Chris, the family's ninth child, picked up the phone.

“Mom,” he said. “Mother Teresa of India wants to speak with you.”

The family members exchanged looks of disbelief.

Charlotte Williams picked up the phone. “You are not to worry,” Mother Teresa said in her distinctive foreign accent. “Therese is in our Blessed Mother's hands. Tomorrow I will go to the hospital and leave her a miraculous medal.”

None of the Williamses had known that Mother Teresa was in Chicago attending a conference for religious. How did she find out about Therese? How did she get the family's unlisted phone number? To this day, nobody knows.

After the nun's call, the family forgot their apprehensions and felt peace and joy. The next day, they found the miraculous medal on Therese's bed. Little Therese went home with full-time nursing. She had to live in a wheelchair, her legs and arms paralyzed, and sleep in a Porta-Lung.

Her relationship with Mother Teresa, however, did not stop that day at the hospital. In the fall of 1980, the foundress of the Missionaries of Charity celebrated her 50th anniversary as a religious in The Bronx. The Williams family attended the celebration. After Mass Charlotte Williams, the 6-year-old Therese in her arms, waited her turn to greet the holy nun.

Mother Teresa spoke before they introduced themselves. “Therese,” she said. “I prayed for you. Now you pray for me.” How could Mother Teresa recognize the girl? The blessed nun brought this secret with herself to heaven.

Yet the key of her deep friendship with the American girl is not that mysterious. Souls can meet and grow in love through prayer and sacrifice. Thus, they can somehow transcend the boundaries of time and space.

Therese was named after the Little Flower of Lisieux — that Carmelite nun who met and loved many souls through prayer and sacrifice. That's why she was named the patroness of all foreign missions.

From her wheelchair, through prayer and suffering, Therese can enjoy not only a never-ending friendship with the Church's newest blessed but also with many other souls.

Therese's vocation, indeed, is not different from that of her friend Mother Teresa. In a letter dated Dec. 3,1947, the foundress of the Missionaries of Charity recounts what Jesus told her once. “Your vocation,” he said, “is to love and suffer and save souls.”

Friendships in the same vocation are kept forever.

Legionary Father Alfonso Aguilar can be reached at