Once upon a time, in a very isolated village, there lived a little girl named Katy. She was beautiful and gentle, with smiling eyes and a good heart. Her parents loved her dearly. Her brothers and sisters had a specific liking for her and whenever they went out shopping, they would bring a present for her. Katy loved her brothers and sisters very much but she loved her little brother Dan in a particular way. She played with him and helped him when he wanted something. They both liked their cat and their dog. One day their brother Joe made a small cart for them. How much fun they had with that little cart! They even carried their cat and their dog in it. On her fifth birthday Katy was given a beautiful present by her mother; it was a doll which could cry. What a surprise it was!

Jane never had a doll of her own because her parents were poor and could not afford to buy toys for their children. “What a beautiful doll you have, Katy,” she said. “How I wish I had one like it!” Katy looked at Jane. Even though she was small, she was very kind and generous. She liked her doll very much. But she loved Jane very much too and she could not understand why Jane’s parents could not buy her a doll. ‘Take my doll,” said Katy. “I have other dolls and we can play ‘mothers’ together.” And she gave her doll to the amazed but delighted Jane.

When Katy was six years old, she started going to school. She liked school very much because she wanted to learn to read stories by herself and then to tell them to Dan and her friends. So, she was very quick to learn how to read and write. She was very diligent in her homework and made great progress at school. Since she was very attentive at school, Katy was able to do her homework well and fast. After she had finished reading her class books, she would spend time reading the lives of saints. Her dream was to become as good as those saints, in order to please Jesus and to make her parents happy. In her early childhood, Katy had been taught to pray and to love Jesus. She never missed her prayers in the morning and before going to bed. “Jesus, I thank you because you loved me. I thank you for my parents, brothers, sisters, teachers and companions. Bless them all and always be with me.” Katy soon started attending Sunday School to learn her Catechism in order to prepare for her First Holy Communion. She longed to receive Jesus in the Holy Eucharist. She received her First Holy Communion with great devotion and spent a lot of time talking to Jesus for he was her best friend.

One day she was eleven, Katy got sick. During the night she had a very high fever. Her parents sent for the doctor and for the priest. The priest arrived first and went immediately to visit her. She was pale and tired, but when she saw the priest, her eyes brightened. “Father, I am going to see Jesus,” she said. The priest could not explain why she told him that.