TESTIMONIES: Her friends and neighbours

Now we will follow her during her youth in Quebec, before and after her stay in New York. From 16 to 24 is a long time in which to get to know Dina.  Her friends tell us:

 

I was fifteen years old and Dina was about 20. She offered to help me with my school homework. I went to her house and showed her my literary compositions and also asked her to help me solve my problems in algebra.  Thanks to her precise advice and for her innate ability to communicate what she knew, I soon became very good at mathematics. She has always fascinated me, above all, for her young and joyful conversation. She knew how to laugh and tease us. I admired her and found her very good-looking, without understanding exactly that her very attractive personality was but the expression of an intense interior life. She was very gentle and her artistic soul was revealed when she played brilliantly the works of the greatest musicians.

Dina never complained when she was asked to play something and did so immediately. She wanted to please everyone, but was never proud of her musical talent.  Her success never went to her head.

After leaving our boarding school we spoke mainly about music. At that time she had great ambitions, even glimpsing a European Prize on the horizon. Now I think that this pretended ambition was only to hide the fact that her only objective in life was the great love of God that overwhelmed her.

She was very charitable towards the poor. She would work day and night to help those who asked for something, even making it with her own hands. She seemed to understand what misery is and knew how to cure wounds. She had a good word for everyone, her spirit of service was constant and without limits.

A neighbour says: Dina was a very distinguished young woman, generous and without caprices. She asked for nothing from her parents and was content with everything. We were poor, and I had eleven children. When my husband asked her to be the godmother to one of my daughters, she felt content and honoured. Every month she wrote to us from New York, in spite of much work that she had.

Dina was very attentive to the needs of others. A companion tells us: in a musical sketch I had the role of a beggar; I did not have a dark coat and did not know what to do. Spontaneously Dina lent me hers, having removed the buttons, something which made it look more miserable.

Someone who knew Dina very well states that she had to struggle to overcome her strong temperament, but that her efforts and the resulting progress, was continuous. The setbacks and serious disappointments that came her way did not upset her serenity or remove the smile that made her so attractive.

TESTIMONIES: Her companions

Today I am going to tell you how her school friends saw Dina – is that alright?

 They say that Dina was always very punctual and attentive in class.  She never found an excuse to be absent from school. Very studious and gifted, methodical in her work, she never lost a minute. Doing well in every subject, she came first, but was never proud. Always very generous, one day she allowed another student who had ten marks less than her, to take the first place for which she had struggled and which was hers by right. She was known as an outstandingly good student.

One companion says that Dina was a little nervous. She was rather timid but made efforts to overcome her timidity. Dina was a little shy of her above-average height. The somewhat fearful look in her eyes made her companions nick-named her “our little gazelle” which greatly amused her. In spite of this timidity, if it was a question of helping her companions, she did so. When any of them got up to mischief, she never reported about them, but when asked, told the truth. She never told lies.

Dina did what her teachers told her, which was more than the rest of us, and for this we pulled her leg, calling her Saint Dina, Holy Dina. This was not from ill will, but to tease, although underneath we did admire her.

She was very humble and unpretentious, she did everything naturally. She was simple, courteous, distinguished in her manner and easy to get on with. She did not speak of herself or of her gifts; if these were mentioned, she accepted graciously. She did not take the first place in meetings. She did not say much, but when she did speak her conversation was serious, but agreeable and entertaining, listening to all that was of interest to us.

Dina was self-forgetful and thought of others. She always had something good to say to those who annoyed her. She did not like to hear unkind things being said about others, she knew how to make excuses for their shortcomings.  In conversation she never criticised or said anything disagreeable about other people.  When a conversation arose about someone, she always tried to bring out a good quality. One companion says that she never listened to criticism: if I criticised sometimes, she found an excuse, assuming that the person’s intentions were good; she corrected my opinion but without being harsh. I do not think that I have ever heard that she made anyone suffer, she was too gentle for that.

Dina had a strong personality but was never in a bad mood. I was near her in the dormitory and in the mornings I noticed that she always had the same smile. In one music examination they asked her something that surprised and bewildered her; she blushed and seemed very annoyed, but soon regained her self-possession. She was rather slow and once her mother reproached her for making me wait, she was not cross but smiled humbly.

Her life was reflected in her writings. When asked about this, her companions say that what she says about her childhood and adolescence is true.  We can see that she was interiorly fulfilled.

TESTIMONIES: Her parents

We have followed Dina through the different stages of her life: family, childhood, schooling, youth, piano and harmony studies, New York, celebrations, concerts, religious life, apostolate, illness … An ordinary life, like that of many people but lived extraordinarily in but one key: God

The many gifts that she received from Him were unnoticed by those who lived with her, but are  reflected in the ‘stave’ of her daily life, which she lived with exquisite fidelity to the graces that God offered her and to which she was constantly attentive, not wishing to miss one note of the symphony .

The score of her life would not be complete if we did not hear some testimonies of those around her: let us begin with her parents.

Her mother says: 

        She worked on her character.

Dina did not like to be contradicted or corrected, she had a strong personality. In her early years she had small crises when she did not get her own way. Once when I asked for something she replied, very crossly “No”.  Her father tried to teach her a lesson by stamping his feet along with her … Dina understood and never did it again.  She was determined to control her strong temperament!

She accepted peacefully the events that life brings.

When the family underwent a financial difficulty, it was Dina who consoled her mother. Her mother had enjoyed singing but ceased to do so. Dina noticed this and said to her: “God knows what He is doing. Perhaps you would be proud of your house or your clothes. Perhaps God wants it like this”. On other occasions, to cheer me up she would say: “wait until tomorrow, it will change”.

When her mother had the accident which prevented her from going to New York Dina said simply, in spite of the sacrifice that this implied, “ If I cannot leave  home, I will stay”.

Her parents tell us: 

        She maintained her life of prayer

Dina went to bed late and, in the morning, feeling tired, was slow to get up, but never missed going to Mass at 7 am. She hastened to do her school homework in order to pray before the Blessed Sacrament in the afternoon. Her parents tell us that after communion, they saw that she was completely absorbed in adoration and that when she prayed with them she was very attentive. Her father said: she was very discreet concerning the graces she received.

Daily fidelity

Dina was very energetic and tenacious in what she undertook and, above all, persevering if it was a just cause. She had a good family spirit, was very sensitive and tidy. Her life was tranquil. She spent three or four hours each day practicing her music. She was grateful for everything and felt that too much was being done for her.

As a child she loved nature and admired the wonders of God, above all the flowers, birds and the beauty of clouds, trees, the sky, moonlight: everything served to praise God.

Dina was very generous and shared her belongings with others. She was always truthful and expressed her thoughts with candour. Her parents add that they never had to reproach her for telling a lie.

She was respectful and on hearing criticism would say "We do not know what the intention was".