In November, 1924 Miss Pauline Willis, a great supporter of Anna Dengel and fundraiser for her mission, and Anna Dengel Sailed on a merchant ship to America. It was a small boat and both of them were terribly seasick. Fortunately the steward on board took good care of them. In America they were received by members of the Medical Mission Board. They started making arrangements for talks to make the cause known. Miss Willis proved to be a great help; she knew so many people. After six weeks, Miss Willis returned to England. After that Anna Dengel had to work on her own. Her disappointments and heartaches can be gathered from the following:
"Practically every time in the beginning when I was here (United States) and met priests, they were not a bit interested. They would tell me about their doubts and worries and building programmes and I believed it too. I did not know anything to the contrary. It depressed me. I felt terribly sorry for everybody. I thought, they have such problems. I had never heard such problems in my life. People were burdened with such debts. I made up my mind to stop asking for money. My idea was not to get the money, it was to make the cause known. But at the same time it would have been nice to get some money, when you come like that. I reached a stage when I thought it was really sad in this country. I don't know how long that stayed with me. That would have been the end of me, it was so bad. All of a sudden I thought: everybody else seems to be able to proceed, why shouldn't I? I just threw it overboard, just like you would throw something terrible overboard. I just disregarded it. I started out again... As I told you, I hadn't the faintest notion to stay in America or that the Society would come about in America." (Talk: Anna Dengel, August 1952)
There were a lot of disappointments but the small bag for the nice things also filled up. Anna met good friends and people who helped her, like Dennis Cardinal Dougherty of Philadelphia and Archbishop Michael Curley of Baltimore. She received help from the Medical Mission Board to make the cause known. It was arranged that 1/3 of the contributions she received were to be for the Board and the other 2/3 she could use for the hospital in Rawalpindi.
The photo is of Miss Pauline Willis and Mother Anna Dengel.
