AmatriceSister Marjana Lleshi, a Sister of the Handmaidens of the Lord, barely escaped with her life after this week’s powerful 6.2 earthquake left her buried beneath a crumpled convent wall.
FoxNews.com is reporting on the story of Sister Marjana, 35, a native from Albania, who was sleeping in the Don Minozzi convent beside the Church of the Most Holy Crucifix in Amatrice when the quake struck at 3:36 a.m. Wednesday.
Sister Marjana, along with six other sisters, were caring for five elderly women at the convent as part of their mission to run nurseries and homes for the aged.
When the quake struck, Sister Marjana woke up to find herself bleeding and covered in dust. After realizing what happened, she immediately tried to summon help outside her room. No one responded to her calls and she could not get out.
"When I started losing all hope of being saved, I resigned myself to it and started sending messages to friends saying to pray for me and to pray for my soul and I said goodbye to them forever," she said later during an interview.
"I couldn't send a message like this to my family because I was afraid that my father would have an emotional collapse and die hearing something like that."
After a long while, she heard the voice of a man calling her name. “Sister Marjana! Sister Marjana!”
It was a young man who cared for one of the elderly women at the home. He was able to pull her out and, with the ground still shaking, she sat down on the side of the road and began texting friends and sisters that she had survived.
The sight of her sitting on the roadside, blood oozing from beneath her veil and her habit covered in dust, was captured on film by an Italian news photographer and quickly became an iconic image of the desperate aftermath of the deadly quake.
Registering 6.2 on the Richter scale, it has thus far claimed more than 250 lives, including three of the nuns and four of the elderly women who lived with her at the convent.
After being checked for dust inhalation and receiving stitches for her head wound, she was transported to her order’s headquarters in Ascoli Piceno.
More than anything, she would still like to travel to Rome next week for the September 4 canonization of fellow Albanian, Blessed Teresa of Calcutta, but isn’t sure if those plans are still feasible.
"For me she's the symbol of Albania, of a strong woman," she said of Teresa. "I would have liked to go, but after this I don't think I can."
Whatever the future brings, she’s just happy to be alive.
"I had said 'adieu,'" she said, "and in the end it wasn't an adieu."
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