God’s Little Hobo

Disabled. Abandoned. Institutionalized. Meet “God’s little hobo,” and a true child of Mary Who would fault Virginia Cyr if she had become bitter toward life and angry at God? She was neither, despite the cerebral palsy that kept her in a wheelchair, despite her mother abandoning her as a youngster, despite her being placed in an orphanage and — though only in her twenties — in a nursing home because there simply were no other places for her. Virginia Cyr, God’s Little Hobo is Virginia’s story, in Virginia’s words. Here are her tender, amusing, inspiring, amazing “Letters to Mary” —. the journal entries she painstakingly tapped out on a typewriten Here are the thoughts and prayers, the hopes and dreams, she offered to the Blessed Mother. One gentle warning: You’re in for a surprise. In the words of Quentin Colgan, who edited Virginia’s manuscripts and wrote the introduction to this hook: “I went down to Virginia’s room, knocked on the door, and my life changed forever. I don’t know exactly what I was expecting; perhaps some poor, unfortunate, lonely person who was handicapped to boot. What I encountered was an intelligent, lively, funny, attractive young lady… “By the time I met Virginia, she had long since realized that her vocation was not to the religious life. She was, however, living a consecrated life, hainng taken vows privately. She came to the conviction that her calling was to be with, or perhaps, more accurately, to be for, whoever invited her into their homes or lives. Thus she was always on the go, ready in an instant to pack up and spend time with anyone who sought her company. “It was for this reason that she was lovingly referred to as, and often called herself, ‘God’s little hobo.”