She leaves a great void in all the people and communities who knew this woman of communion, of faith, of great openness, joyful and daring in the many different realities that she loved and served, with initiative and dedication.
Anna Maria was originally from Cuneo, a town in Piedmont surrounded by the high profiles of the mountains: ‘She worked with a smile and with attention to others, and because of this she knew how to make herself loved’, is how her sister Ernestina describes her character. ‘A woman small in stature, but with a big heart,‘’ Borgaro councillor Eugenio Bertuol remembers her with emotion. ‘She was a friend of the poor and capable of great vision, who was able to involve so many lay people who supported her activities from afar in her commitment.
In Costigliole d’Asti too, she was much loved and known, also because she was the aunt of Don Luca and Don Claudio Margaria, parish priest of the Costigliole parish. Often when she returned to her family she was asked to tell the community about her experience, and she did so with great humility and grace.
She was a woman of the Word, she meditated on it and proclaimed it! Her motto was ‘For Christ, everything counts, everything is overcome in Him’.
This is how we wish to remember Sr Maria Laura, as she kept the flame of charity burning and sang in the service of her brothers and sisters, for the spread of the Kingdom of God.
At Borgaro Turin with the children.
She entered the Sisters of Charity in 1961, at the end of the novitiate, and received the name Maria Laura. In the first years of her religious profession she was a kindergarten teacher at Borgaro Torenese, in the Nemesia Valle school, where her pupils always kept in touch with her and joyfully awaited her returns from the mission to meet her and have her tell them about what God was working in people. She had a special gift for this kind of sharing, she believed in the resilience of the poor and willingly put herself at their side, without taking their place.
There are many who remember her with affection for the great work she did in the Borgaro nursery school, where generations of children passed by. To her passion and enthusiasm we also owe the rebirth of the parish youth centre.
In Argentina, in Los Toldos with the Mapuche and the novices.
In 1983, she was sent on a mission to Los Toldos, Argentina, the land of the Mapuche, ‘people of the earth’, an indigenous people repressed during colonialism, strongly committed to the defence of their historical and cultural identity, with their language, their traditional dress, their values.
Here she was entrusted with the delicate responsibility of Novice Mistress. During the years of this service, Sr Maria Laura learned to love the Mapuche culture and its expressions, particularly singing.
As a Sister of Charity, she trained her novices in the impulse towards God Alone, in being content with the merely necessary, in learning to discover and serve the seeds of the Gospel in every reality, being bold and joyful in their responses in a time of change.
In Paraguay, in San Miguel for the animation of the “basic ecclesial communities”.
In 1991, Sr Maria Laura was sent to San Miguel, Misiones, Paraguay. A Church strongly marked by the ‘basic ecclesial communities’, which she helped to organise and train to listen to the Gospel and the poor with creativity and enthusiasm. It is due to her, the organisation of numerous ‘youth missions’ that have marked the lives of those who now lead the Christian community of San Miguel.
In Argentina, in Nainek for family pastoral work.
In 1997, he was back in Argentina, in Laguna Naineck, Formosa. During these years his pastoral work developed more in family catechesis.
In Bolivia, in Potosi for the Adult Literacy Centre and carpentry.
In 1999, on the occasion of the Bicentenary of the foundation of the Sisters of Charity, Sr Maria Laura was sent to open a new community in Bolivia, in Puna, Potosí, Bolivia and later in Toropalca. The department of Potosí is a harsh place, at an altitude of almost 4000 metres, with uncomfortable living conditions due to its cold and variable climate and rarefied air.
Here Sister Maria Laura was able to give a strong impetus to the Adult Literacy Centre, starting and leading a carpentry workshop. While there she received a visit from one of her then kindergarten children who wanted to meet her on their honeymoon.
Back to Argentina, with Bolivian migrants.
In 2008 her new mission was Ezpeleta, Argentina, where she again met the Bolivian brothers and sisters she had learnt to love, but as migrants, in need of being welcomed and integrated into the parish community of San Vito.
A new call brought her to Ceibas, a small community in the Entre Ríos estuary: with her missionary zeal, Sr Maria Laura was able to reach out to the last ones.
In Paraguay, in Fernando de la Mora, to ‘be a fertiliser of the earth’.
In 2018, she moved to Fernando de la Mora, her new community. She became Sister Eufemia’s inseparable companion, living what she called ‘a time of being fertiliser for the earth’: a simple and daily dedication to the community and the poor.
We thank our friends from Borgaro and Costigliole
and our sisters in Latin America for this tribute.