Janis & Kathy

Janis: It is our first time. We had been planning on coming for a long time and, I don’t know, just circumstances kept us from coming. 

We were going to bring our mom, originally, but then she got ill. It never really was a good time for her, being sick. Then she passed about five years ago.

So we finally decided to make this journey together. We had to come to together. That was not an option. 

Kathy: We are going to bring our other sisters back here. There are four of us. We have one that, she was texting me from the Medjugorje prayer group back home, telling me that they were praying for us. They had requests. I brought all their prayer intentions. 

We’re gonna get her here, and we’re gonna get the other little sister. And we have a brother. We’re gonna get them all here. That’s our goal.

Janis: Our goal is to all come back together.

Kathy: We’ve had two true miracles. 

I have a granddaughter that was born with leukemia, not supposed to live, not more than a week probably. 

She is now 7, in complete remission. Thousands of prayers. Total miracle. I am here to give thanks to God for her. 

Then, my daughter had a baby in May. She was 27. 17 days in ICU; almost hemorrhaged to death. Her blood type changed, she had so much blood. She is alive, back at work, and her baby is almost 10 months. 

Janis: She’s a miracle.

Kathy: The doctors even say, “We don’t know why you’re here.”

So up at Cross Mountain and in front of that Blessed Mother, trust me, I am thanking Jesus and thanking the Blessed Mother. Because we prayed. We had a prayer card of the Divine Mercy and a prayer card of the Blessed Mother.

Janis: Hanging in her room at all times.

Kathy: At all times. And They came through. They came through for us. Life is good.

Janis: Lots of peace here. I love it because I feel like there’s no distractions. That’s what I love about it. There’s no distractions. You can just really connect with the Blessed Mother, with God, with Jesus. Everything has been absolutely beautiful and touching and just an inner peace with yourself. 

Kathy: I agree with Jan, I think it’s peace, but I also feel so much joy. 

My mom always said, “To Jesus through Mary.” We grew up thinking that. And Mom saw the Blessed Mother at her death. 

Being here just reinforces to me the peace and joy that the Blessed Mother is going to bring us. And She’ll be there to take us to Jesus. We just have to– everybody needs to pray the Rosary. I learned on this trip too, it really reinforced to me that the Rosary really is our greatest weapon. The greatest weapon there is. Everybody needs to know. 

Janis: Our mother did see the Blessed Mother when she died. She told us. 

She was between both worlds almost, sitting on the edge of her bed, and she asked us, “Can you see this?”

And we’re like, “Mom, what are you seeing?”

She goes, “Well, heaven of course.” And she said, “Don’t you see Her?”

And we’re like, “Who?”

She goes, “The Blessed Mother and all the gifts.”

Kathy: She said, “There are so many gifts for me here.”

We said, “Who has gifts for you?”

Both: “The Blessed Mother.”

Kathy: The look of joy on my mom’s– there you go again– joy and peace. And she died at exactly the Divine Mercy hour. 

Janis: She had a great devotion to Divine Mercy. She’s the one who taught us about Medjugorje, Divine Mercy, all these things, before they became as known as what they are now. We were young. And she’s taught all of our own children too. All of the grandchildren know all about this place, they know all about Gran’s great devotion to Divine Mercy. We all pray it. 

Kathy: And my husband joined the church because he was at my mother’s death. He’s 64 years old. He’s been Protestant all his life and he said, “Your mother’s death was so beautiful.” So beautiful it brought him to the Catholic faith. 

Janis: That’s another miracle.

Kathy: At my mom’s death, we were all there. Most of the grandkids were there. We were all there together. 

Janis: She went down a little bit after she saw the Blessed Mother. She said, “Oh! He’s trying to come for me, but I’m not ready yet.” 

I’m like, “I’m going if Jesus is coming for me.”

She waited for all of her kids to be there, waited for the grandkids, and the three o’clock Divine Mercy hour. We were all there, and we sang the Divine Mercy. Then at the end, we read to her, “Jesus will stand at the bed of the dying.” We read the thing at the end that she taught us so well. And she actually opened her eyes, looked at us, and took her last breath at 3:37 on a Friday. 

[ iMedj note: Jesus said to Saint Faustina: “Write that when they say this chaplet in the presence of the dying, I will stand between My Father and the dying person, not as the just Judge but as the merciful Savior” ]

So it was like, we need to be here. And a lot of it is in thanksgiving. We have a great life, great family, great faith. We’re happy to be here.