This was how Jacinta spent her days until Our Lord sent the influenza which confined her to her bed, and her brother Francisco as well.
The evening before she felt sick, she said: “I’ve had a terrible headache and I’m so thirsty! But I won’t take a drink, because I want to suffer for sinners.”
Apart from school or the small tasks I was given to do, I spent every free moment with my little companions. One day, when I called in on my way to school, Jacinta said to me: “Listen! Tell the Hidden Jesus that I like Him very much, that I really love Him very much indeed.”
At other times, she said: “Tell Jesus that I send Him my love, and long to see Him.”
Whenever I visited her room first, she used to say: “Now go and see Francisco. I’ll make the sacrifice of staying here alone.”
On another occasion, her mother brought her a cup of milk and told her to take it.
“I don’t want it, mother,” she answered, pushing the cup away with her little hand.
My aunt insisted a little, and then left the room saying: “I don’t know how to make her take anything; she has no appetite.”
As soon as we were alone, I asked her: “How can you disobey your mother like that, and not offer this sacrifice to Our Lord?”
When she heard this, she shed a few tears which I had the happiness of drying, and said: “I forgot this time.”
She called her mother, and asked her forgiveness, and said she’ll take whatever she wanted. Her mother brought back the cup of milk, and Jacinta drank it down without the slightest sign of repugnance. Later, she told me: “If only you knew how hard it is to drink that!”
Another time she said to me: “It’s becoming harder and harder for me to take milk and broth, but I don’t say anything. I drink it all for love of Our Lord and of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, our dear heavenly Mother.”
Again, I asked her: “Are you better?”
“You know I’m not getting better,” she replied and added, “I’ve such pains in my chest! But I don’t say anything. I’m suffering for the conversion of sinners.”
One day when I arrived, she asked: “Did you make many sacrifices today? I’ve made a lot. My mother went out, and I wanted to go and visit Francisco many times, and I didn’t go.”