RALEIGH — While thousands mourn Mother Teresa in India, people in the Triangle remembered the modern-day saint and celebrated her life.

WRAL'sAmanda Lambspoke with a priest Friday night who had a very special connection with Mother Teresa, one which changed his life.

Father Steve Worsley first met Mother Teresa on a rainy morning in Rome in 1993. He says he will never forget how she sat cross-legged on the floor of a church and urged the group of priests to continue to help others.

Worsley heard that calling and started working with the Missionaries of Charity, and that's exactly where he was when he heard the news of her death.

For four years Worsley has been on an odyssey, working with Mother Teresa's nuns. He was with them when she died and said first there was grief, then joy.

Worsley said Mother Teresa was very direct about what she asked of them.

Worsley heard the call and after a visit with nuns in Ethiopia, he changed his life.

"When I came back I sold most of my toys, sent the money to Africa, and I think I lost 30 pounds in the next three months," said Worsley

He continued to work with the sisters, women who will carry on the legacy Mother Teresa left behind.

The world will say goodbye to Mother Teresa in a grand way, but Worsley says attention was never her goal.

There are 4000 of Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity in 150 countries, and Worsley said he has confidence that they will carry on her good work. And he intends to do the same.