Protected by the watchful eyes of Our Lady

My aunt Marguerite was a very pious and truly charitable woman. I remember that when I visited her, she would often invite me to go to her church to pray the Rosary with a small group of friends, or to pray for someone who had just died, and when I spent the night, she made sure that I said my evening prayer.

She never married, and raised her nephew whose mother (her sister) was disabled and whose dad didn’t take care of properly. She was for us a providential substitute grandmother, loving, young in spirit, joyful and welcoming. We couldn’t remember our paternal grandmother who died before we could meet her, or our maternal grandmother who died when I was 10 (I am the eldest of 4 children). After the accidental death of our father when I was 6, she used to rent a small apartment to let us spend our school vacations with her in the countryside.

One day while she was walking to the village she saw a truck coming her way transporting logs to the nearby sawmill. The street was wide enough for the passage of a truck and pedestrians, and it wasn’t the first time she had walked alongside it, but that day a sudden premonition made her turn back a few steps and go into a walled courtyard. When the truck passed by the courtyard where she had taken shelter, all the logs broke loose and, with a deafening noise, came rolling down against the walls of the courtyard. If she had not heeded this inner prompting, she would have been crushed to death by the logs.

Her last premonition happened just before she was taken from us. She was ill, and just before being carried into the ambulance taking her to the hospital, she said to her neighbor: "I won't be back, you know… "

My siblings and I have a fond memory of this adoptive grandmother. There is no doubt that the Virgin Mary, who always protected her, welcomed her at her passing and took her to her Divine Son. May she rest in peace!

Patricia, a reader of A Moment with Mary. Testimonial sent on Jan. 18, 2021