A miraculous recovery

January 2012. The ambulance was racing towards Annecy. Firmly secured in a gurney, I tried my best to not move. The EMS doctor who had rescued me a few hours earlier, screaming in pain on the side of the road, was on the phone next to me. I remember receiving 3 shots of morphine in the ambulance, more vaguely going through the CT scanner at the hospital in Thonon. By then I was not in pain anymore. Now I could hear the doctor saying: "Aneurysm of the abdominal aorta...". I thought: "Sh... ! I am going to die!" I knew what aneurysm meant... I felt a terrible fear and anguish, like I was falling into a hole.

My first reaction was revolt: it is not fair, not now... followed by resignation: after all, I’ve been lucky in my life.  Well, I'm going to pray, that will calm me down a bit. Then I suddenly remembered: 30 years earlier, a local priest had recited the Hail Mary before my mother's body. Suddenly I understood that this prayer, which I had been reciting like a parrot, was the prayer of the last moment: "Pray for us, sinners, now and at the hour of our death." And the hour of my death was now! So I started to pray: "Hail Mary, full of grace..."

We got to the OR...I remember the ceiling of the hallway rushing by, and people wearing blue scrubs all around me. After 4 days in a coma, my 2 children and my wife were next to me when I opened my eyes... The surgeon said a month later: "It was extremely, extremely close!" But I know - it is obvious to me - that it was Mary who took my hand and protected me. I understood that immediately. The recovery was long and difficult, but I made a plan to go to Lourdes as a volunteer to thank Mary!

One year later, I volunteered to assist sick pilgrims as a hospitaler for several years in a row! I met wonderful people there who helped me find my way back to the Church! This conversion changed my life. Praise be to God! Thank you, Virgin Mary!

G. R., from Périgueux, France. Testimonial sent to Mary of Nazareth in November 2022.