with Mother Teresa's organisation, Mrs. Lucy Willits says she was overwhelmed with thankfulness when she stepped back on Bermudian soil.

As a volunteer who paid her own way to make the solo journey to the slums of Calcutta, she says it was the experience of a lifetime -- and one that she would like to share: "When I hear people on this beautiful Island complaining that they don't have this and don't have that, I would like to put them on a bus and drive them through the streets of Calcutta. Not to make them work, but just to let them see and smell the stench of hopeless poverty where people are dying of malnutrition and disease. When they got back here, they would kiss the ground they walk on.'' As one of hundreds of volunteers from all around the world who regularly converge on the famous institution, Mrs. Willits was surprised to personally meet the frail Mother Teresa -- and even more surprised to have her photograph taken with the 82-year-old living legend: "There were signs all over the Mother House, where she lives, saying `No Photographs' so I felt very privileged. She has a great sense of humour, because she gave me one of her business cards and laughed when she gave it to me. It must be unlike any other, because it has her creed written on it, and that's all!'' Lucy Willits also noticed that the Nobel Peace Prize medal was strung together with other medals and hung round the neck of a statue in the frugal headquarters where even tables and chairs are considered a luxury.

Mrs. Willits says no amount of reading or watching TV can prepare a newcomer for the reality of India's cities: "The streets are crowded with thousands of people whose only home is the sidewalk. This is where they try to cook, bathe, urinate and even give birth; the smell in that heat is unbelievable.'' As soon as she arrived in the 120 degree temperature of Calcutta, she was "thrown in the deep end'', being sent to a home maintained by Mother Teresa for some of the city's unwanted who are left alone and destitute on the streets. As many as possible are brought into the spartan refuge by nuns who are attached to Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity.

Home for these people is a huge room with a concrete floor and iron beds and it was here that Mrs. Willits began the task of washing the wasted bodies: "There are no wheelchairs, so however maimed they were, these poor people had to crawl about on the floor. I had two towels to dry 50 patients. There was a drum of water in the middle of the room and I used a dipper to get enough water to wash them. Underwear is unknown so I just put them back in little cotton dresses that had been provided. There were no bathrooms -- just a gutter outside.'' Although she found it overwhelming at first, Mrs. Willits says she soon became accustomed to the stench and the constant heartbreak: "It was actually a very humbling experience because in spite of the fact that these people have nothing, they are so grateful. My hands, which I discovered were the greatest gift that God has given me, were being kissed all day long as they tried to show their appreciation.'' Perhaps even more harrowing was the time Lucy Willits spent working in Mother Teresa's orphanage and which she describes as "another eye-opener''. There is a successful adoption programme where mainly European families adopt the children but still there are hundreds of children who have been abandoned by their parents and left in the streets. Most of them are girls, who are often regarded as an added hindrance in poverty-stricken families. Some are deliberately handicapped by their desperate parents who realise that a crippled child makes a more successful beggar: "I was working with one child who had had her eyes poked out and there was another dear little boy with no feet. They had been chopped off.'' Calcutta is the site of the City of Joy, recently given world-wide exposure through Patrick Swayze's movie of the same name. Mrs. Willits was invited to visit this remarkable commune where everyone lives together and shares everything.

She also visited the house set aside for lepers who, thanks to Mother Teresa, now live productive lives, making shoes, saris for the nuns and weaving cloth.

This trip involved a 45-minute ride out of the city in a bus that was "packed with humanity, people hanging on the outside and sitting on the top''. "There were no brakes and no rules of the road,'' she said.

Amongst the many images that linger in Mrs. Willits' mind is the man who begged her to buy his baby for 20 rupees, the equivalent of two cents, and a little old lady to whom she became very attached: "She had lived all her life in the jungle and was taken care of by a bear. When she was brought into the mission, she was walking on all fours.'' She was also told the tale of a nine-year-old boy who had spent his life with a tiger in the jungle. The bonding between the two was so great, that when the child was rescued recently and brought into the mission, he survived only a week: "These stories may be hard to believe but they are true. Now we can see where Rudyard Kipling got the stories for his `Jungle Book'.'' She has many anecdotes about Mother Teresa, such as the occasion when she was recently invited to a glittering city banquet to accept yet another award: "She walked in, saw the food and said `No! Take this food and give it to the poor.'' Wealthy Indians in jewels were moved to respond and were soon to be seen making an unusual tour, distributing the food amongst the poor.

Asked how she coped with so much misery all around her, Mrs. Willits replies: "Either you walk away because you can't stand it, or you stay and help. You have to keep your heart strong, but not hard. I did get very emotionally involved with one 13-year-old girl who was dying of malnutrition. Her body was literally rotting away and there was nothing I could do to save her. But you go through a kind of spiritual surgery and you come through it a stronger person.'' Mrs. Willits says she was particularly struck by the happiness of the children she met in the homes: "Maybe it's the freedom of not owning anything at all.

They seem to have a natural kind of joy that you rarely see in westerners.'' She was also deeply moved by Mother Teresa: "She has taken a vow of poverty and has taken it literally. She won't allow any fund raising, only donations.

She says she relies on "divine Providence'' and it works, because she manages to feed hundreds of people every day. Although she was very ill a few months ago, she keeps working. She says she wants to die on her feet -- and she probably will. She is a living, walking saint.'' Mrs. Willits says she was inspired to go to India when she was unable to lead her yearly pilgrimage to Medjugorje -- the site where a group of children had allegedly experienced repeated encounters with the Virgin Mary -- and where millions of people had been drawn until the civil war erupted in nearby Sarajevo.

"India has taught me tolerance, endurance, patience and thankfulness. And it has certainly made me think about my own country. Just as the people in India are born to great poverty and know nothing else, Bermudians are born into a comparatively wealthy society and know nothing else. We have forgotten how to be grateful.'' MOTHER TERESA made an exception to the rule of `No Photographs' when she agreed to pose at her Calcutta headquarters with volunteer worker Mrs. Lucy Willits.

MOTHER TERESA'S ORPHANS -- Some of India's homeless children find a haven in Mother Teresa's orphanage in Calcutta. The fruit of Silence is Prayer The fruit of Prayer is Faith The fruit of Faith is Love The fruit of Love is Service The fruit of Service is Peace.

MOTHER TERESA UNIQUE -- Mother Teresa's `business card'