Friendships can happen anywhere, and I made a new one on a cruise ship during a Transatlantic crossing. It was a long cruise, and this woman and I had a lot of time to talk. During one of those discussions, we compared notes on our children and pulled out our pictures as moms tend to do. Her daughter was a beautiful woman in her mid 50s, with red hair and green eyes. Imagine my surprise when she shared with me that this lovely woman had been born with a bright red birthmark that covered her left cheek. This mother also thought her daughter was beautiful, but she knew that life can be hard for those who are different. So she set about to find a cure.
Doctors tried various methods to reduce the redness, but nothing could make it go away. Her parents finally took their little girl to a priest they had heard about, Fr. Solanus Casey, a holy man with a reputation for working miracles. He was quite old by then. This was in the mid to late 50s, shortly before his death. Fr. Casey took the little girl from her mother's arms and laid her on the altar of his church. He prayed for a moment and then handed her back to her mother. He didn't promise a cure. He simply told them not to worry. So they didn't.
The woman said the birthmark didn't fade right away. But it started to slowly lighten, and one day was gone. That wasn't the miracle, though. She said the miracle was that the little girl's mother stopped fretting about it. The encounter strengthened her family's faith and was a lesson in simply trusting that God has us in the palm of his hand. The little girl with the birthmark went on to have a very successful and happy life.
Fr. Casey was a fascinating guy. To find out more about him, go here:
http://www.solanuscasey.org/portal.php
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