Bernarda Bakes Her Heart Out

If you’re living near Chalice’s Arica site in Chile, and you’re in need of a birthday cake, you’ve got to check out Bernarda’s business. Her delicious cakes, pies and kuchen are well-known among friends and neighbours, who regularly sign up to purchase her tasty desserts.  

Bernarda is an active member of her parish and an angel to those in need. After 30 years volunteering in a soup kitchen that fed the homeless, Bernarda needed a retirement career to cover what her pension could not. She settled into her true passion: pastry.  

But passion hasn’t always been enough. When Bernarda’s oven broke down a year ago, she could no longer bake. As a 78-year-old woman who couldn’t afford to live on just her pension, there was only one choice: find new work. 

Bernarda was determined and found work as a caregiver for an elderly couple, cooking and cleaning for them. For a woman her age, though, the work was hard.  

That’s when, by the grace of God, she was given a second chance to follow her passion. 

Thanks to a donation from the Chalice gift catalogue, Bernarda received a brand-new oven.  

“Seeing her happy face was a gift,” our site staff on-the-ground in Chile wrote. 

She’s now organizing her time so she can sell pastries, and is so thrilled to once more work on her passion. 

“With it, I will prepare my pastries; I will keep doing what I like. I love you very much. May God repay you for all the good you have done to me,” Bernarda wrote.    

Do you want to help someone like Bernarda? Check out the 2021 Christmas gift catalogue Learn More! 

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