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VOCATION STORIES OF THE SISTERS
THE ORANGE , GREEN AND YELLOW  TRAIN Who would think that a train, and an orange, green and yellow one at that, would be the voice of God drawing a young woman to answer a call to religious life?


The 30's was a hard time in the little town of Bremond, Texas but the Widacki family raised five children, one of whom was Helen, the second oldest.  Her Mother, Josephine, was a pious woman who prayed every night with the children.  She taught them to ask God what he wanted them to do with their lives.  This impressed Helen very much and she fervently asked God's guidance.


Helen loved to read the Lives of the Saints, especially St. Theresa, the Little Flower.  She was very attracted to her way of life and wanted very much to be like her.  The seeds of her vocation were growing into a stronger leaning  toward religious life.


In first grade Helen was taught by the Incarnate Word Sisters of Corpus Christi, Texas, and then the Felician Sisters arrived from Chicago, Illinois to take over the school.  She felt that these sisters were part of the family, since they were Polish like she was.  She saw their great love for teaching little children and their closeness to the Lord in prayer.  "Could these be the ones whom she would join?  She watched that train more intently, and her heart yearned even more to join the sisters.  Her mother even told her to stop talking about that train taking her north to the convent, because it seemed to have become an obsession with her.


Helen was fascinated by a prediction made by the principal of the school, a Sister Genevieve.  This sister gave her brother, Ray a Holy Card in second grade and told him that he would be a priest.  Though he was a belated vocation, he did become a fine priest after serving in the army.  Helen was already a woman religious when her mother's prayer for a priest in the family was fulfilled.  Now her mother had two jewels in her crown.

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