Mary welcomed my dying wife with open arms

I am a 76-year-old Frenchman. I have had a trusting relationship towards the Blessed Virgin, our Mother, since I was 20 years old. I was married to my wife for 53 years. She was a person who never intellectualized her Christian faith, but who lived it. She gave me three children and, for their greatest happiness, she led a discreet life as a stay-at-home mother.

The last nine or ten years of our life together were not what we had dreamed of when I retired at the end of March 2004, as my wife was diagnosed with Alzheimer's. During our happier years, I had repeatedly promised her that if she ever became dependent in any way, shape, or form I would never put her in a care home. I regularly reiterated my promise to keep her at home and to take care of her completely, personally, at any cost!

The health that Heaven gave me allowed me to keep my promise, and, strangely enough, the ordeal wasn’t too hard. The love that I felt for my wife gave me wings and made me attentive and able to guess her slightest needs in order fulfil them and avoid her any extra discomfort. Of course, I do not pretend to have always been as perceptive as I perhaps could have been. Nobody’s perfect!

We were both shaped by years of actively participating in the Catholic scout movement in France, inspired by Robert Baden-Powell. I would often recite the scout prayer to myself, but at that time, in our situation, I began to appreciate the true meaning of the words. When my wife began to decline and started making a slow exit from this earthly life towards her "heavenly home," I asked Mary to come and take her on August 15th (Assumption) to bring her to one of the Father’s many abodes.

August 15th passed by and my prayer was not answered. I blamed myself for presuming on God’s grace. Instead, Mary came on the Vigil of September 8th (Our Lady’s Nativity), at the end of a difficult day for my wife! It was only then that I made the connection. Noticing the feast day, I understood that the Blessed Virgin had recognized in my wife an authentic mother, as she herself had been for Jesus. I felt reassured on the eternal happiness of the mother of our children, and I am grateful to Mary for this strong sign that she sent me beyond the pain of separation!

Adapted from a testimonial by Gerard K., a reader of A Moment with Mary, 2020