[Therese's loss of her mother kindles both suffering and the realization of the source of love, showered upon her by her family]

When Therese was four, her mother fell fatally ill. For the weeks leading to her death, a friend would take her and Celine to her house and try, without success, to distract them from their mother's illness. She took in all of the circumstances of death, and then adopted her sister Pauline as her new mother.

"All the gaiety of life went" after Therese mother died. She became "diffident and oversensitive." This sad stage lasted from age four and a half to fourteen. Yet the affection of her father grew infinite, and sisters Marie and Pauline became the kindest and unselfish of mothers. God poured "His light so lavishly upon his 'little flower'" that she was able to endure her earthly trial.