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My Mom & Dad were married in 1943 while my Dad was home on leave from the Marine Corp. My Dad got home for good in 1945 and they tried to start their family. No babies came for 5 years other than one miscarriage.
They had kind of given up and were ready to be childless. They were on their way to church when they saw an elderly woman walking along the road. They stopped and offered her a ride. She was going to church so they offered to bring her along.
So they went to the Catholic Church for mass. After church the priest was outside shaking hands and greeting the parishioners when he shook the old woman’s hand she whispered something to him and the priest started crying and gave her a big hug.
So that kind of blew them away but they didn’t want to ask any personal questions. So they offered to drive her home. My Dad asked her where she lives and she said “in my Father’s house”
Well, that didn’t help much so Dad just drove out to where they picked her up. She said she would just get out there. My Dad said there’s nothing around here, I can drive you home. She didn’t say anything other than take my mother’s hand and say “you are going to have a baby everything is going to be ok”
So she got out and they started driving away. My Dad turns around to look at her but she’s gone. He said you could see for a mile in every direction but she was gone.
My Dad was the most No nonsense guy you could ever meet, believe me and he always didn’t go along with my Mom’s stories but this one he said was real.
Sure enough my Mom turned out to be pregnant and had a healthy baby boy. And then went on to have 8 more healthy babies.
My Mom and Dad struggled most of their lives financially with the changing farm economy so we didn’t even have health insurance. In all those years even with working on the farm none of us had a serious injury or illness.
They were absolutely convinced they were visited by St Ann in response to their prayers.
Many years ago, when I worked as a volunteer at a hospital, I got to know a little girl named Liz who was suffering from a rare & serious disease.
Her only chance of recovery appeared to be a blood transfusion from her 5-year old brother, who had miraculously survived the same disease and had developed the antibodies needed to combat the illness.
The doctor explained the situation to her little brother, and asked the little boy if he would be willing to give his blood to his sister.
I saw him hesitate for only a moment before taking a deep breath and saying, "Yes I'll do it if it will save her."
As the transfusion progressed, he lay in bed next to his sister and smiled, as we all did, seeing the color returning to her cheek. Then his face grew pale and his smile faded.
He looked up at the doctor and asked with a trembling voice, "Will I die right away, or how soon?"
The boy had misunderstood the doctor; he thought he would have to give his sister all of his blood in order to save her.
Surrounded by her loving family as she relaxed by the pool on a dream holiday, Maria Belon felt she must be the luckiest woman in the world.
Seconds later, Maria and her terrified husband and three sons were swept away by a ferocious 30 foot wall of water that devoured everything in its path.
Maria was horrifically wounded as she was dragged under water by the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami of Boxing Day 2004.
After being submerged for more than three minutes, she finally surfaced and clung on to a tree.
She was petrified, alone and convinced she was dying – but in a miracle that has inspired new film The Impossible, the mum and her family survived.
Moments before paradise was smashed to bits, Maria was on a lounger at the Orchid Resort Hotel in Thailand while her boys, Lucas, 10, Tomas, eight, and Simon, five, were playing nearby with their dad.
The mother watched in horror as husband Quique Alvarez and their two youngest boys were submerged by the roaring mass of dark water that carried with it cars and the chalet the family had been staying in.
Surrounded by her loving family as she relaxed by the pool on a dream holiday, Maria Belon felt she must be the luckiest woman in the world.
Seconds later, Maria and her terrified husband and three sons were swept away by a ferocious 30 foot wall of water that devoured everything in its path.
Maria was horrifically wounded as she was dragged under water by the devastating Indian Ocean tsunami of Boxing Day 2004.
After being submerged for more than three minutes, she finally surfaced and clung on to a tree.
She was petrified, alone and convinced she was dying – but in a miracle that has inspired new film The Impossible, the mum and her family survived.
Moments before paradise was smashed to bits, Maria was on a lounger at the Orchid Resort Hotel in Thailand while her boys, Lucas, 10, Tomas, eight, and Simon, five, were playing nearby with their dad.
The mother watched in horror as husband Quique Alvarez and their two youngest boys were submerged by the roaring mass of dark water that carried with it cars and the chalet the family had been staying in.
And what does this imply about all the countless people who did not get a miracle? Who did not surface after 3 minutes or who succumbed to their wounds anyway? Who lost some of their family members? Were they insufficiently pious? Fungible commodities in some divine Plan?
I do not understand these people who surface at any given human disaster with a body count to exult in their good fortune at miraculously surviving it without the slightest awareness of how in so doing they are deepening the suffering of others. Just humbly admit that it was dumb luck. You are not God's PR department. And if you are trying to fulfill that role, it is backfiring.
Before refrigerators, people used ice-houses to preserve their food. Ice-houses had thick walls, no windows, and a tightly fitted door. In winter, when streams and lakes were frozen, large blocks of ice were cut from the frozen waters, hauled to the ice-houses, and covered with sawdust. Often these ice-blocks would last well into the summer.
One man lost a valuable watch while working in an ice-house. He searched diligently for it, carefully raking through the sawdust, but didn't find it. His fellow workers also looked, but their efforts, too, proved futile.
A small boy who heard about the fruitless search slipped into the ice-house during the noon hour and soon emerged with the watch.
Amazed, the men asked him how he found it.
"I closed the door," the boy replied, "lay down in the sawdust, and kept very still. Soon I heard the watch ticking." ~From Directions by James Hamilton
Lena and her family were flying from New York to their home state of South Carolina in the US, and on landing, the six-year-old noticed she was missing a tooth.
When they got to baggage claim Lena realised her tooth was missing and must have fallen out.
The six-year-old was overcome with tears after a turbulent 36-hour flight delay.
She was very concerned about losing her tooth because she always puts her lost tooth under her pillow for the tooth fairy, but alas she had nothing to leave.
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