1997 Mother Teresa Signed Note
Appraisal Details
An Antiques Roadshow viewer wrote to us after seeing an appraisal of a note received from Mother Teresa thanking the guest, Ernest Loganbill, for a walking stick he had carved for her. Patty told us that it was her sibling, Sister M. Kateri of the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, who drew the image on the card Loganbill had received.
We followed up with Patty who helped give us a fuller picture of the small image. “My sister joined the Missionaries of Charity in May 1981. At that time, the Sisters were allowed to write to their families once a month on the second Sunday. All of them wrote ‘+LDM’ on all their correspondences, usually in the left upper corner as it is on the thank you note to Mr. Loganbill.”
Internet research indicates that “+LDM” stands for “Laudetur Deo Mariaeque,” which means “praise to God and to Mary.”
Patty continued, “In her letter dated February 14, 1982, my sister told us the story of the ‘child in the palm of God's hand’… Also in that letter is a copy of the drawing.”
In the letter, Sr. Kateri explains how she volunteered to make the drawing as a surprise gift for Mother Teresa, and why the words and image were chosen: “The words from Isaiah (paraphrased) are words Mother [Teresa] always says in her letters to people—so Sister Priscilla (Superior of U.S.) wanted to surprise her by having some cards made up that Mother [Teresa] could send out.”
It was one of these cards that Roadshow guest Loganbill received after sending the cane he had personally carved to Mother Teresa.
One might guess that Mother Teresa was very pleased with the image Sr. Kateri created as she apparently asked a young woman, Susan Conroy, to recreate it four years later. Conroy recalls, “While I was with Mother Teresa in Calcutta in 1986, she personally showed me this small version of it… which the Missionaries of Charity apparently used as stationery. Mother [Teresa] then asked me to create a large drawing of a child in the Palm of God’s Hand with those same words from the Prophet Isaiah. I put my whole heart into drawing this image at Mother Teresa’s request, using my own hands as a model, and my depiction ended up being large enough to be framed and hung on the wall at the convent.”
Mother Teresa received a number of notable prizes in recognition of her actions, including the Nobel Peace Prize in 1979. Mother Teresa died in September of 1997, but The Missionaries of Charity continue the work she began in India with branches now existing in many parts of the world.
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