Mary Lou Machart can be found every Monday, Wednesday and Friday in the kitchen filling orders for the Residents in the Home. Maybe that doesn’t sound too interesting or like a special function, however, Mary Lou has been doing this for over 37 years, and she doesn’t miss a day! It’s Mary Lou’s job, and she does it to perfection!
When the doctors told Mary Lou’s mother she would be physically impaired, her mother didn’t want her. Her mother was told the best thing to do would be to have an abortion. She would have done it if it hadn’t been for a lovely, wonderful couple who already had 9 children. They told Mary Lou’s mother they wanted to adopt her, and they did. Mary Lou was raised in love with the other nine children in the family.
Another myth was that she would never walk. With faith in God and lots of work she is able to walk. She may not walk as fast or as far as some others, but she is on her own two feet, and she walks.
Her life is different from those who are considered physically perfect, but she has life and she has faith in God who gave her that life.
When the Home of the Little Sisters of the Poor was in Minneapolis, Mary Lou became a Fraternity member and did her job there. The Home closed around 1977 and Mary Lou moved to St. Paul in a low-income apartment near where the new home would be built. In 1986, she moved into the current home. Mary Lou now lives at the Little Sisters of the Poor and gives herself to God and her neighbors.
When I asked Mary Lou how long she was doing her job, she simply said, “many, many, many years,” and when I asked her if she was happy, she looked up at me with the biggest smile and said, “I am so very happy. I have God, I have my faith, I have my family here, and I am alive.”
CELEBRATE LIFE!! 37 YEARS AND STILL GOING STRONG!