5 Thérèse was a very happy little girl. She lived in Alençon with her parents and her four big sisters, Marie, Pauline, Léonie, and Céline. One day, she found her mother lying in bed, looking very pale. “Mama, aren’t you well?” exclaimed Thérèse with surprise. “No, my little one, I’m not very well. You are going to have to be very brave. I’m very ill and am going to go to heaven.” Thérèse’s mother looked tenderly at her daughter and sighed. Thérèse was only four years old, but she understood that her family would soon be stricken by a great sorrow . . . When their mother died, Thérèse and Céline were still very little. What was to become of them? They so needed comforting! So Céline threw herself into the arms of her sister Marie and cried: “Well then, you will be my mama!” And Thérèse, who always did everything just like Céline, said: “Well then, Pauline will be my mama!”
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