By Msgr. Noel C. Burtenshaw

She never looked back. Not once. Teresa went down the familiar steps, leaving the lavish halls of the beautiful Loretto behind her and stepped into the grime of the Calcutta ghettos. Forevermore these side streets of indescribable misery would be her only cloister.

"Come back to us at anytime," said the Sister of Loretto in that well-known mansion in the heart of Calcutta. "We need you here. Your work is here with us."

"So often," says Mother Teresa, displaying that famous smile, "I was tempted to race back to my Loretto convent and the companionship of the sisters and the warmth of their home. I never knew how hard it would be. But God had called me."

In the whole world she is now known for her ministry to the poor. The stories are legion. She has more helpers than she can use. Novices flock to her side to share her ideals. Every sovereign state in the world has shown her honor. She is as famous as the Polish Pope.

But it was not always so for the "little Mother" of Calcutta. When first she went to the teeming masses of Calcutta's poor, she went alone. And she worked alone. Alone she dressed the wounds of the lepers and buried the abandoned dead. And all on her own she begged food and shelter for the most helpless and the most unwanted.

There is one in Atlanta who remembers those early days and the sight of the non-famous Teresa making her first efforts in Calcutta.

"Mother Teresa used to come to my mother's shop," says Gloria Walker, who now lives with her husband and children in Holy Spirit parish. "My mother, Mrs. Metra, had a furniture and antique shop in Calcutta and she would come to beg. That was about 1949 and a few women had joined her in her apostolate -- not many -- but together Mother Teresa and her helpers were beginning to get notice in India."

It was really the Indian authorities who first gave her recognition. "At first," says Gloria, "they wanted to put her out of business. They wanted her to stop helping the unfortunate. They could not believe that she and the other sisters would really spend their lives helping lepers and rescuing unwanted babies. What they really thought was she was trying to win converts and undermine the Hindu faith."

When it became apparent that Teresa was merely interested in service and devoted ministry to the street poor, the authorities became her helper. Proudly they now point to her work.

Gloria Walker remembers seeing her for the first time. "You never forget her face. It is always radiant. It was then in 1949. She needed furniture for her convent and hostel. My mother gave her some, including the table she used for her first altar and the tabernacle, a wooden safe that she used to keep the Blessed Sacrament."

Gloria Walker spent some time as a member of the Loretto Sisters in Calcutta before leaving to become a homemaker and mother. She still returns to visit her family in India and always tries to see Mother Teresa.

"I was so fortunate on my last visit," says Gloria. "I spent almost two weeks with her and saw her work at first hand. It is so wonderful."

"Babies are rescued from trash cans. Lepers, still a most prevalent misery, are taken into her houses. The mentally retarded are taken off the streets and given her gentle treatment."

"But really it is not her work that impresses. It is HER. Looking into her eyes, you just feel you are in the presence of Christ -- you are with Christ. When she speaks you feel like the most important person in the whole world."

"Her words are simple but so courageous. She says we want to take the easy way out. Abortion and mercy killing are our answers. Give them a pill and get rid of them. We must take care, she says, and not destroy. Those who have been given a lot have much to share. We have many problems in the world, but the biggest problem is the lack of love."

Gloria Walker attended Mass with Mother Teresa and her novices on many occasions. "She is a minister of the Holy Eucharist and helps distribute communion to the community. It is a wonderful experience to be with her at Mass. She gives her spirit to her sisters. It is obvious."

Although Mother Teresa is called to be at many banquets, she rarely eats away from her community. The diet of the sisters must be at all times similar to that of the poor they serve.

It would seem that Mother Teresa's next project (she has recently established housing for the poor) is a Catholic hospital for the city of Calcutta and its population of nine million people. "She has been so successful in all her endeavors," says Gloria Walker. "I'm sure we will see this one become a reality too."

Everything that this great modern apostle of the poor stands for could be summed up in her own definition of her vocation. A reporter commented that while the work of Mother Teresa was most noble and heroic, it was so little when so many needed saving. "I ask you to remember," said the great lady, "I did not come to India to save the poor. I came to be with them."

Gloria walker will testify that Teresa of Calcutta is still true to that vocation.