Mamie
By Fr. Rafael Alonso
It seems frivolous to speak of Mamie’s hats.
We might ask ourselves how we can speak of a person’s hats when we want to make reference to that person’s spiritual life.
I only know Mamie’s hats from references, that is, from what she told me. She once mentioned that she had worn a green beret, because green was one of her favorite colors. She also wore a sun hat, but found that it drew too much attention to herself and Mamie always tried to go unnoticed.
“ In my country – she was born in a district of Brussels, Belgium – when I was young, everyone would wear hats, both men and women.”
This is the reason why Mamie, when she was young, also wore a hat. Hats were just another part of one’s attire.
However, what Mamie never desired and what she avoided in every way possible was vanity and feminine coquetry. She confessed to me that she went only once to the hairdresser, because of a family party. When she returned, even though it had not been a big deal, she thought herself to look so sophisticated that she undid her hair and washed away the make-up that they had put on her.
I never saw any of the hats Mamie wore, as I said before, but I did always see her with something on her head, a big, discrete scarf that she would tie beneath her chin and in which she would then tuck her hair. She always wore it, at least ever since I met her in that far-away year of 1973. It was not possible to imagine Mamie without her scarf, just as it was not possible to imagine her without her coffee or without her cigarette. As you know, she smoked ever since she was twelve when some old Swiss ladies introduced this vice to her.
I remember that in the camp which we had in Teran de Cabuerniga, Cantabria, in 1982, we celebrated her birthday, which was July 12th. Fr. Rey Repiso, Mamie and I got together with the girls of the camp. The midday meal went by very pleasantly. Mamie, with her usual charm, brightened everyone up and Fr. Jose Luis Rey Repiso, S.I., gave her a black and white, silk scarf. She was very happy because it was very difficult for someone to give her something which truly interested her; not because she despised the gifts, but because she did not want gifts of value. She only accepted them from certain people and among those people was her spiritual son, Fr. Rey Repiso.
At home she would naturally not wear the scarf, but when she had to go out, after putting on her shoes and coat, she would always put the scarf on her head. Where would Mamie go? When she was at home and had to go somewhere, it was always to go to Mass, either in the Church of the Holy Christ in Santander or in the Jesuit Church of St. John in Toledo. But she would also always wear it when she went on a long trip, normally pilgrimages: to Lourdes, Fatima, Rome, Assisi, Milan, and so many other places. She would always go with her scarf on her head, recollected, praying and in union with God.
©HM Magazine No.131 July/August 2006
