Excerpt from Susan Berna’s letter – 2009

“Natty Hollaman grew up in a wealthy family of White-Russian origin in Argentina. In her twenties, she became a fashion model. She married a well-off business man from Bahía Blanca, who gave her a new name, Natty Petrosino, as well as two sons, Jorge and Fabián.

Natty’s course of life changed completely in the operating room of a hospital some 40 years ago, after a life-threatening illness and operation. Her close escape from death and a near-death experience made her decide to renounce all material possessions and devote her life entirely to the poor, sick and needy. 

At first, she started filling her own very elegant house with vagabonds and handicapped persons whom she had picked up from the streets of Bahía Blanca, this during a period of 7 years. At that time, her husband Vicente as well as the neighbors made her understand that they were becoming weary of all these strange people wandering around the Petrosino house, which was situated in the best neighborhood of the city. She then left her own home to single – handedly found the “Hogar Peregrino San Francisco de Asís” in the outskirts of Bahía Blanca. There, she took care of about 30 mentally and physically handicapped boys as well as old vagabonds, often very ill and at the end of their lives, single mothers and beaten women. For many years she daily prepared and distributed up to 7000 meals to hungry people. 

In the summer of 1999, Natty left the “Hogar” in the hands of a group of nuns. She had decided to bring help to extremely poor people, mostly aborigines living in very remote areas of Argentina. She had already been going on such trips for over 15 years, driving a truck for thousands of kilometers to bring help in provinces such as Mendoza, Patagonia, Jujuy Formomosa and Chaco. Besides regular deliveries of food and medicines, she intervened with the government in order for these indigenous communities to get the basic rights like schooling and health care, in areas where tuberculosis, leprosy, and meningitis are rampant.  

She has built healthcare centers, schools and literally hundreds of houses for the aborigine population. Humanitarian aid rarely gets to these regions as their access is difficult, the roads often unpaved and dusty, becoming impracticable after a rainfall.

Natty’s motto is to bring help wherever it is needed. In 1993 and 1994 she traveled to Russia, invited by the Argentinian Embassy, where she visited and attended refugees at Kazakstan and Chernobyl. After the hurricane “Mitch” in 1998, she was among the first helpers to arrive in Nicaragua. 

Natty, who is considered to be the Argentine “Mother Teresa”, does not shy away from any difficulties. Her principal purpose in life is to serve God by helping fellow human beings to ease their suffering. All her actions are out of love for her fellow humans. She wants to stay independent and refuses to get involved in politics, competition or prestige. She uses her daily work of charity to transmit to everyone around her wisdom, knowledge and God’s laws. Or if you prefer, Cosmic Laws, as her messages go to people of all religions and walks of life. Natty encourages everybody to seek more spiritual understanding and to work on themselves in order to grow. According to her, there is within each of us the potential for goodness beyond our imagination, for giving which seeks no reward, for listening without judgment, for loving unconditionally.  It is a wonderful experience to be with a person like Natty, who through her total confidence and trust in God, tackles any task fearlessly, no matter how impossible or difficult it may seem at first. Her faith gives her so much inner peace, harmony, joy, courage, and energy that she invites other people to have similar ambitions and the willingness to bring help to fellow humans in a selfless way. This certainly is true for all of us who have the privilege of working for Natty. We hope that just by looking at her photo, you will let yourselves be inspired by her as well! “