A Story of Three Words

Carmen Alexandra Vallejo Witowska comes from a long lineage of devout Catholics and her faith is what carried her through the hardest days of the Cuban Revolution.

Although the Castro brothers turned against the church by declaring Cuba an atheist state, chasing out priests and nuns, and shutting down religious schools after seizing power in 1959, Carmen and her husband, Rey, never lost their faith — and never broke their ties to the Catholic Church.

In the mid-1980s, Mother Teresa visited Cuba for the first time and, shortly thereafter, founded a chapter of her missionary order. In 1988, through their work with the saint’s Catholic congregation, the Missionaries of Charity. Carmen and Rey’s lives changed forever. Carmen was chosen as personal interpreter for Mother Teresa of Calcutta. She translated for Mother Teresa to more than 500 medical professionals and Catholics during her visits in 1988 and 1989.

The years before Carmen met Mother Teresa were anything but easy.

Having grown up in the inner circle during the early years of the Revolution, her and her parent’s refusals to denounce their faith in Jesus led them astray from the communist party in the years that followed. In the early days of 1981, disillusioned by the way Cuba had changed, Carmen sought asylum in Stockholm while on an officially sanctioned trip to Russia for eye treatment, but her request for political asylum was rejected and she was swiftly sent back to Cuba. Only the prominence of her family kept her out of jail. In the years that followed, Carmen and Rey were branded worms, unable to work, and alienated from friends and family.

Mother Teresa sensed Carmen carried a heaviness that even her prayers could not lift up.

She urged Carmen to find meaning in caring for others and asked her to visit the local cancer ward to serve kids in need. Carmen often describes how she knelt in church praying with the words: “Please God, I can do anything, but not this.” Braving this new challenge, Carmen made her way to the cancer ward of a local hospital where she met the mother of a four-year-old boy who said her son would not live to see his next birthday. Carmen and Rey decided to throw a birthday party for this boy and found that the entire cancer ward wanted to join them. Understanding the power of joy, as expressed through Mother Teresa’s words, led Carmen and Rey to discover their simple mission of “Loving the Children.”

What began as a simple celebration turned into a mission of faith, love and joy.

Although the kids in their support group may receive quality medical care as they go through treatment, Carmen and Rey know that the real struggles begin once they leave the hospital. For this reason, the group provides the material and spiritual needs following their treatment, providing daily comforts such as food, beds, and other basic necessities. The group they started is not sanctioned by the government, and could be closed down at any time. In reality it is simply what we in the rest of the world would call a “support group” that brings together children with cancer and their families.

The support group meets weekly at the Sacred Heart of Jesus Parish in Havana where group participants and their families can be together. Each weekend, they open up their hearts and homes to welcome new children who have been diagnosed with cancer. Carmen and Rey know it is this “togetherness” that is “the real key to survival.” To date, their work has helped hundreds of kids with cancer across the island of Cuba.

In 2020, Carmen and Rey Cancer Kids celebrate 32 years of loving the children and bringing hope, joy, and comfort to a group of children in Cuba fighting cancer.

When times get tough, as they sometime do, such as when one of the group’s kids join God in Heaven, they close their eyes, breathe, and remember Mother Teresa’s three simple words — Love the Children — and they do.

Carmen’s Story