“Try the Blessed Virgin's water anyway”

At the age of 5, due to difficult family circumstances, I was entrusted to the loving care of Sister Madeleine, a family friend, in a boarding school run by the Sisters of the Assumption. One day,  I got so sick that Sister Madeleine had to take me home on the train in the middle of the week: I had a headache, the back of my neck was stiff, and my legs were so weak that I could barely walk. 

My mother rushed to the door to welcome us, and I could see the anguished look she gave Sister Madeleine. She has told me the story many times since, how she felt her heart gripped with a dark anguish. The doctor, called in urgently, examined me and performed a lumbar puncture. The sample was rushed to the Pasteur Institute for analysis. We didn't have a car, so my 15-year-old brother Pierre hopped on the train, then the metro, with the precious vial in his pocket.

I was diagnosed with poliomyelitis. The paralysis in my leg might spread to my respiratory muscles, which would be fatal. Desperate, my mom tried to get me to drink various beverages, which I kept refusing. We didn't have a telephone, but the news spread among our friends, and a prayer chain formed through the religious communities of  the different schools my brothers and sisters attended. One of them, Madame R., came to us and offered: "I have some water from Lourdes, I'll bring it for Marie-Cécile. "She won't drink it," replies my mother. "Try the Blessed Virgin's water anyway," her friend insists.

To mom’s surprise, I drank the whole glass. The next day, the doctor noted that the paralysis had subsided and declared me out of danger, without ruling out the possibility of a relapse, which was common at the time. But the illness never returned. My recovery was like a full return to life: all my life, I have been able to walk, dance, swim and ski.

www.lepelerin.com