Dear Friends and Family,

It was a year ago today, the Feast of St. Stephen, that I stopped breathing and was rushed to the hospital.

The next few weeks, as I lay in the hospital, the Mercy of God kept me going through this terrible trial. The Light shone in the darkness—and what darkness it was! Just a few weeks earlier I was looking up the night sky and saw the light from the full moon shining through dark clouds. That’s how it was for me and my family. There was always a sense that God loved me, even now.

The great and awesome love of God went out through you. Thank you for praying for me. Reading your emails (and having them read to me) gave me so much consolation and hope and I knew that you were truly my friends. Jesus says “I was sick and you visited me”. That is what you did through your emailsoyou visited me. You made Jesus happy and that consoles me even now. To many of you reading this who live locally, you visited me in person and made the time pass a lot quicker. Thank you.

I know that God was/is/will be glorified through this. I don’t ‘wish that it never happened’. The nurses saw my family every day, every visiting hour. Some nurses resented that and made me know. Many of them, however, we were very good to me. All of them were witnessed to.

They told my family I would never speak or eat by mouth or do what I used to. They were wrong 3 times. Even though I do need a machine to assist my breathing and I have home nurses assisting me a lot of the time, here I am. And every nurse gets closer to God.

Your prayers helped me more then I will ever know here on earth. That is what heaven is for.

Thanks again! I love you all.

Peace of the Newborn Christ Child,