By Sr Alice (As told to F. M. Britto)
Bilsaspur, Jan. 30, 2019: I am Sister Alice of the Salesian Missionaries of Mary Immaculate (SMMI) of Raipur province. While serving in our health center in Delhi, in December 2012, I was diagnosed of ovarian cancer with extension. It had already spread to my intestines, fallopian tube, uterus and was spreading to the liver. It was entering into the fourth (last) stage.
I was getting treated at the famous Rajiv Gandhi Cancer Institute and Research Centre. Before I was taken for surgery, Salesian Father Joseph anointed me. I was given chemotherapy twice there. Though my sisters did not disclose to me my sickness, I understood that there was something seriously wrong.
Due to lack of proper accommodation in our convent in Delhi, I was brought to our provincialate in Raipur by train. On the way I collapsed. So our sisters took me to stay in our convent in Nagpur and I stayed there for two days. I went to the grave of our French co-foundress Mother Marie Gertrude buried in the chapel and prayed to her.
After that I was brought to stay in the provincialate in Raipur. Taking treatment at Dr. Mittal Hospital, I was given the third and the final chemotherapies. My abdomen was getting enlarged due to Ascipis that I had to go to the hospital to remove the fluid. But I was not in a position to move myself. After that I could not eat anything, nor even drink water. I was surviving merely on I. V. Fluid.
Being the month of May (in 2013) I went on reciting the rosary. I told Mary, “Either let me die or get healed by the end of May, your month. Let it happen to me in this month.”
I called my family members to come and see me on May 30, so that they can bury me on 31 and return home. Many of my religious sisters also came to pay their last visit to me. As May 30 came, nothing had happened to me. I was getting restless. Some senior sisters, like my former provincial and superior at my Delhi community, Sr. Anita George, rebuked me for fixing my ultimate date. “Did you give God the date of your birth? Then how can you give Him the date of your death?” they reprimanded me.
On 30th night my provincial (and at present my Bilaspur community superior) Sister Annies John, who had gone to France for a meeting, rang up to me. She informed me, “Today I am in Lourdes and prayed for an hour for your cure kneeling on the spot where St. Bernadette had knelt and prayed. Mary told me that you will be healed today. You will live for some more years.”
That night, for the first time after many months, I slept peacefully. Morning I had good motion too. The fluid accumulation in the abdomen had already disappeared. I was feeling hungry. I asked for tender coconut water and drank fully and I did not know where that water went. I like banana and ate that too. I was just wondering. When they came to poke for the I.V. Fluid, I refused it saying that I feel better today. They could not also find any more place or flesh to poke.
Many sisters suspected that my last day had come. After two days my home people left for home in Kerala, spreading the news that at any time I may collapse.
From that time onwards I discontinued all the medicines, started eating normal food and my health was gradually improving.
When I was taken to the hospital for the check up, the doctors could not believe at the report. All the three cysts had become small. The second test revealed that all the cysts got dried up and disappeared. Looking at the report and me again and again, the Hindu doctor was confused. He declared, “Your Jesus is great.” My family members could not believe that I was improving.
My house superior Sr. Grace Maria said that I was healed since Sr. Annies John prayed for me at Lourdes.
Now I am 71 years old and perfectly alright. I currently serve in our health centre, Bilaspur.
Since I could not go to Lourdes to give thanks to our beloved Mother Mary, I gave witness of my healing to a large crowd of devotees gathered at the solemn evening Mass on Lourdes feast day at the Seminary Hill, Nagpur.
Now five years are over. I have no problem. I eat normal food. I go about doing my duty in our health center and in my community. I attribute this miraculous cure to Our Lady of Lourdes.”