Chapter 8 #3
“We’ve had a call from a sister convent in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, not far from here.
They have two children who’ve been living with a neighbor.
The father died in the first wave of Covid four years ago.
The children were barely more than infants.
And the mother went to look for work in Spain two years ago and was never heard from again.
There’s a grandmother, but no one has been able to find her.
Social Services have been working on it, and the bishop’s office.
The children can’t be adopted until we know about their relatives, and the neighbor has been happy to foster them.
She’s just been transferred in her job and is moving to London, and she can’t take them with her.
They’re as crowded in Saint-Jean-de-Luz as we are, and we’re over capacity now.
I can’t come up with a single bed for them, and after the fire in Bordeaux, no one has room for them.
I don’t want to turn them over to the State services.
We’ve never done this before, but you have a houseful of bedrooms at Bonport.
Is there any chance you would take them for a few weeks till we figure out something else?
I know it’s a lot to ask, but I have nowhere else to put them, and I would trust you with them.
” Both nuns looked at her intently, as Sabrina thought about it.
She hadn’t expected anything like it, and had thought she was in trouble.
She didn’t know what to answer. She was no longer set up for a life with children.
It hadn’t even occurred to her. She loved volunteering at the monastery, but it would be very different having them live with her.
“How old are they?”
Sister Anne answered for the Superior.
“Five and seven. The little boy is five, his sister is seven. The woman who has been taking care of them says they’re very well behaved and extremely shy.
The boy doesn’t remember either parent, but the girl remembers her mother.
The grandmother doesn’t know they exist, so she’s not looking for them.
The mother ran away at seventeen, when she found out she was pregnant.
Most of our children have complicated stories.
” Sabrina didn’t know what to say at first. “Apparently the woman who has been fostering them was only notified of the move a few days ago. She’s been trying to work it out, but she can’t.
She’s going to be living in a single room, and she can’t afford childcare.
She lives with her mother in Saint-Jean-de-Luz, and her mother has been helping to take care of them.
They think the children’s mother might be dead or they’d have heard from her by now.
They said their mother loves them but isn’t reliable.
The young woman who has been responsible for them is leaving in two days.
And her mother says that caring for them alone is too much for her.
” Fostering two children was the biggest decision Sabrina had made in a year.
She was worried that with their complicated history of abandonment, she might do something wrong for them and make things worse without meaning to, and they were surely going to suffer when the only people they knew as family would disappear from their lives suddenly.
She thought of Xavier’s grandmother and the children she had rescued.
She surely hadn’t asked for a psychological evaluation before she saved them, and those children had faced much more traumatic situations.
Most of them had never seen their parents again, they had died in the camps.
Almost all of those children had been orphans by the end of the war.
But these two might already be orphans now and the grandmother might never be found.
“Of course they can go to school here at the monastery with the others. And as soon as we have beds for them we’d take them off your hands.
We’re trying to keep them together since that will be the only constant they know, each other.
I’m sorry to ask it of you. It was the only thing Sister Anne and I could think of.
Two of our adolescents will be leaving in a few months, and we’ll have bed space then, but we’re way over our limit now, and will be then too. ”
“Can I think about it for a day?” Sabrina asked them.
“I just need to run it through my mind. My children will be coming at some point, and I don’t know how they would feel about it.
” She’d been putting off telling them about her volunteer work at the monastery, on the off chance that they’d be jealous or would think she was losing her mind, even more so now if she had two of the children living at the chateau.
She had no idea how they’d react, or even how she felt about it herself, but a part of her wanted to help.
“Of course,” Mother Regina answered. “I realize it’s a big decision, even for a short time. It’s the responsibility for two human beings. That’s never a small thing.”
“I want to be sure I can give them what they need.” She still didn’t feel a hundred percent herself since losing Malcolm. It was one thing to run away to a village in France and rent a chateau, it was way more than that to take in two very young children to live with her.
“Maybe you should discuss it with your children,” Sister Anne suggested, and Sabrina slowly shook her head.
“No, it’s my decision. These children will only come for a short time.
If I feel I can do it for them, I will. I’ll let you know in the morning,” Sabrina promised and stood up.
She had a lot to think about. She wanted some quiet time alone.
She was still young enough to have children that age, but her children had been fairly grown up for a long time.
Young children were no longer a part of her life, and she wasn’t ready for grandchildren.
But this would be different. And if she got attached to them, if they stayed long enough, it would break her heart to see them go, and her heart was already broken.
This was meant to be a healing time for her, which was why she had come.
She shook the Mother Superior’s hand, and promised her a quick response. And Sister Anne walked her to her car.
Sabrina smiled at her. “Well, that was a surprise.”
“Mother Regina said you’re the only person outside the convent that she would trust with a mission like this, even though we haven’t known you for long.”
“I love children, especially my own, but those two kids sound like they’ve been through a lot. I don’t want to do anything that wouldn’t be good for them.”
“That’s why Mother Regina thought of you, and I agreed. There’s a stipend for food and medical expenses.”
“That’s not what the decision is about. I just want to be sure I can do it, in the best possible way for them.”
“I think you would,” Sister Anne said quietly. “I would put their lives in your hands.”
The phrase she had said before Sabrina drove away went around and around in Sabrina’s head.
“I would put their lives in your hands.” It was what all of those parents had done with their children and babies during the war with Xavier’s grandmother.
They had put their children’s lives in her hands, without question.
She had her answer. She stopped the car and pulled off the road and called the convent.
A nun she didn’t recognize answered and she asked to speak to Mother Regina. She came on the line quickly.
“Hello, Mother,” Sabrina said in a strong clear voice, and the Superior was sure she was about to say no. “I’ll do it. Thank you for your faith in me. When should I come to get them?”
“Will tomorrow work for you?”
“That will be perfect. I’ll be ready.”
“Thank you, my dear,” Mother Regina said gratefully. “I truly appreciate it. We’ll do anything we can to help you. They say they’re very sweet children.”
“Thank you for asking me.” Sabrina felt breathless.
“Thank you for being a blessing to those two children. God bless you.” There were tears in Sabrina’s eyes when she put the car into gear again and headed toward the chateau.
She wondered what Malcolm would think of what she was doing, living in a chateau in the French countryside and bringing two children into the house to stay with her.
She wasn’t even sure what she thought of it herself.
She wondered if this was how Xavier’s grandmother had started, with one very simple request to save a child and knowing she couldn’t say no.