We left our story with Bernadette promising to visit the "beautiful lady" again. In her mind, Bernadette was just going to visit the Lady without telling anyone. But her sister, Toinette, noticed that Bernadette was different. She said that Bernadette had a glow about her.
Bernadette did tell her story to Toinette and her friend that was with them, but they had to promise not to tell anyone, especially her mother, Louise. This was to be kept a secret. Well, anytime you tell someone a secret, it is no longer a secret, and the first thing that Toinette did was to tell their mother. No only that, but their friend told her mother as well. Before you knew it, the whole town heard about the "beautiful lady" in the Grotto.
Mrs. Soubirous (Louise) did not know that the whole town already knew so she had Bernadette promise that she would not go into the Grotto. They would just keep it to their family. Her reason for this was that her husband had just been let out of jail for stealing a sack of flour, well, that was the accusation. No one would hire Mr. Soubirous so they lost their reputation and their house. They ended up living in a jail cell that was too bad for prisoners. The family of six ended up paying rent for a one room abandoned jail. They became "that kind of family."
Do you know people that are "that kind" of people, so we stay away from them? Mrs. Soubirous wanted to stay "under the radar" so that the family could get on with their lives. Did you ever want to do that too ... just get on with life?
If it got out that Bernadette said that she saw this lady, there was no way the family could stay anonymous.
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