Statue Honors Mother Teresa

A life-sized, bronze statue of Mother Teresa was displayed Wednesday in Calcutta, the city where the late Nobel Peace Prize winner spent most of her life helping the destitute and dying.

British sculptor Jonathan Wylder depicted Mother Teresa with her right handed extended, palm down as if she were reaching out to comfort someone. Wylder never met Mother Teresa, but worked from photographs.

Amid hymn singing, the statue was unveiled at the Mother House, the Missionaries of Charity headquarters established by Mother Teresa, a Roman Catholic nun born in Macedonia.

Naresh Kumar, a worker at Mother House who was instrumental in having the statue made, said that Wylder initially made Mother Teresa's hands very delicate.

"But Mother's hands were really strong, the strongest I have seen," Kumar said. So alterations were requested to make the hands sturdy.

Wylder's fear of flying prevented him from attending the unveiling in the Prayer Hall, outside the room where Mother Teresa's tomb is located.

"I think this is the best thing I have done," Wylder said in a letter read during the ceremony.

"When we see the statue we feel she is there," said Sister Nirmala, the Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity who succeeded Mother Teresa. "We are reminded of the love and blessings of Mother who may not be physically among us but guiding us from above."

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