Madamoiselles

The Daughters of Charity were founded by a contemporary and colleague of St. Vincent de Paul, St. Louise de Marillac. Louise was the illegitimate daughter of a rich father. So while she possessed money, she did not possess the same social position that she could have. She never got the title of "Madame," but was "Mademoiselle," even after marriage. She funded many of the projects on which she and Vincent embarked and helped garner support from affluent communities. As a result, I refer to charitable wealthy people as "Mademoiselles."

I had the privilege of meeting some of them and hearing Archbishop Carlson address an audience earlier this week. A scholarship foundation had a gala, and when two of the guests our assistant principal was bringing cancelled at the last minute, Ana and I got invites. We hurried home from school Tuesday to change into pretty dresses and heels and rushed off like Cinderellas. Like Cinderella, the transformation was temporary and we had to be home early.

When we arrived as the crowd waiting in the receiving room, and the throng of people intimidated me at first... until we found our boss and her mother and a few other people we knew from school. Then we cycled upstairs into a dining room, where we ate delicious food and were serenaded by school children.

I've met more donors and financial backers this year than I had expected coming into the school. They have all sorts of personalities, kind of like the population in general. It can be hard dealing with the self-satisfied and self-righteous -- but then you end up with people like those we met Tuesday. They possess both material wealth and a desire to give. It overflows into charities such as this foundation; but it overflows into the children and parents from a desire to help the children and the parents. Every now and then, that's good to see.

On a more selfish note, I found it refreshing to hear people appreciate what we do. Ana and I got a lot of questions, since we were less than half the average age of guests. So we explained that we volunteer full-time as part of an organization, etc. etc. And people cared! They were impressed! The glam of the year has started to rub off, and it felt good to see it return, if only for an evening.