Miracle Mission Accomplished: Unexplained Broken Beads Mend and Heart Healed

My mom, 80 years old, prays a lot with Rosary beads. When her financial planner went on a trip to Italy in 2006 she brought back Rosary beads from the Vatican as a gift for my mom. My mom carries them with her everywhere. Then one of the connecting hooks broke making it like one long piece of thread with beads. She asked some neighbors, my sisters as well as myself to see if one of the holding hooks could be fixed to string them back together. None of us could do anything. This in between hook was no longer a hook but a straight piece of metal.

HEART MENDED
When she elected to have open heart surgery due to stenosis of the aeortal valve, two of the hospitals she was in, each gave her plastic Rosary beads. She made it through: open heart surgery, a pacemaker, initial rehabilitation, a failed pacemaker and then a third surgery for a new pacemaker. As I completed packing to return home and get my sister ready with rehab clothing, I telephoned my mom to ask what she might want me to take to her at the hospital. “Did you get those Rosary beads fixed?” I couldn’t tell her we did, but she told me to bring them as is. “I’ll be there after I stop at Sue’s with your clothes for rehab next week.” My youngest sister is in caregiving mode when I am at home in Virginia. She and my middle sister do the majority of day to day helping for my mom who lives alone.

BEADS MENDED
As I packed the final items in my car and started the engine, oops, I forgot the beads. I turned the engine off, walked back to her apartment and into her bedroom. I reached for the plate on her dresser where I laid the favored broken beads on top of the two hospital sets just 3 days prior. I remember when I laid them in there thinking, “I wish we could fix these for mom.”

As I pulled them out, they appeared to be strung all together. “That hook must have grabbed to a surrounding bead and now at least tape might hold them together,” I was thinking as I ran my finger around to find that place.

I couldn’t believe it so I looked more carefully and ran my fingers around a second time.

The beads were like new. It set me in a daze. I don’t even recall how I got to my sister’s. Truth is, I missed her exit and had to call her for directions since I live in another state. I did know I needed confirmation of what I was seeing. “Sue do you remember these Rosary beads being broken?” I asked Sue as I held out the cross from my hand where I tucked the beads. “Yeah,” she said as she looked at the cross and I nudged the beads to her hands.

UNEXPLAINED MIRACLEn“Unbelievable!” she exclaimed. She took the beads, looked more carefully and ran her fingers around them. “How did they get fixed?”

“A miracle,” I yelled with delight. “It’s a miracle.”

We both were astounded and shook our heads. We looked at and felt them all around again.

When I got to the hospital I wasn’t quite sure if I needed to say anything when I handed them to my mom. “You are truly blessed,” as I handed her the beads. “How did you fix these?” she asked me.

She started crying as she held them and I told her the sequence of events.

When she stopped crying she said, “But what happened to those two beads that fell off?” She then started moving her fingers around the beads counting aloud as she went. If you know about Rosary beads, a rosary helps the person praying keep track of the number of various prayers. Fingers move along the beads as the prayers are recited. Since you don’t need to be thinking about the prayers, you can meditate on the words as your fingers move. Usually there are five groups of ten beads (a decade), with additional large beads before each decade. “They’re all here!” She started crying again and kissing the beads.

MISSION ACCOMPLISHED
Have you seen miracles of this kind on television? Or heard of them on radio? I have and have always thought, “How did that happen?”

Or maybe you’re like my agnostic husband, “There’s a logical explanation; maybe someone entered your mom’s apartment, found the beads and got them fixed.” I’d almost believe that except her neighbors who are her friends, know all the comings and goings: they rarely are gone from the premises and report all to any resident, or visiting family.

What other kind of “natural means” might you be considering caused this? I’ve thought about what other kind of scientific explanation could account for this. What other kind of natural event could explain it? Maybe they are different beads all together. Again, someone would have had to enter her apartment for this switch to be made and we would have heard about this.

Could an 80 year old be wrong about two additional beads that fell off? Yes; but not my mom. She's got one long and strong memory.

Miracle or not, there's no explanation as of now. We'll just take it as a miracle and let the positive effects continue.