Very few people in this world truly have the ability to affect millions from their work, their touch and their presence.

This is why the reality of their passing seems unreal, whether it be a president or a princess.

Most recently, the individual was someone many consider a saint.

The passing of Mother Teresa last Friday was undoubtedly a great loss for the world.

However, it is a greater loss for the millions of individuals who were cradled in her arms.

These are people whose faces show a lifetime of poverty and disease that can only be truly grasped in their presence.

For individuals whose lives are shaped by such sadness, a glass of milk or a pair of sandals are a blessing.

The poor in India, Lebanon and Ethiopia and other parts of the world

found a thousand blessings in Mother Teresa.

“The poor give us much more than we give them,” she said in 1977. “They’re such strong people, living day to day with no food. We don’t have to give them pity or sympathy. We have so much to learn from them.”

Her work with the poor earned her a Nobel Peace Prize in 1979 and other accolades during her lifetime.

This rare woman is one of a few icons in this century of industrialism and technology.

It is a rare and fortunate opportunity to have learned about someone with a selfless heart like Mother Teresa during our lifetime.

The poverty-stricken can no longer be cradled by Mother Teresa.

However, it is only appropriate her work continue for the purpose of bettering their lives and paying tribute to the life of a true saint.