A Mother's Story...Part II

Now I return to the year 2001, to the month of April (just months before Greg got sick). My husband had just received a promotion that moved us from South Bend to Fort Wayne. We were thrilled. Our boys were five and three years old. We quickly found our church family at St Vincent de Paul Catholic Church. In fact we found the parish before our home and insisted our realtor find us a home close to this parish.

During that summer we received a book in the mail, Challenge and Change, about consecrating families to The Blessed Mother. There was no return address or any indication from whom or where this book came. But I decided to read it none the less. I was deeply touched and inspired by the book. Also, during that summer Tom was invited to a men’s group in Elkhart where Fr. Larry was speaking. Tom was introduced to, among many men, Irv Kloska. Immediately upon shaking hands Irv told Tom he had to go to his car to get something for Tom. Tom thought, “How can you have something for me when you don’t even know me?” Irv returned with a scapular medal for Tom that he said was blessed with Mary’s tears. He told Tom, “Wear this. You will need this some day. It will bring about many miracles.” Tom’s next thought, “My life is great. How could I need any miracles?” But he immediately placed the medal on his chain. Within weeks Greg started exhibiting signs (that continued throughout the entire summer) of what we later learned was cancer.

After a summer of pain, sickness and many ER and doctor visits, numerous misdiagnoses, we finally got the news on September 18, 2001 that Greg’s blood was 30% cancer. We called friends and family to ask for prayers as we left for Riley Children’s Hospital the next morning. By the time we got to Riley’s his blood was 43% cancer. When we left Riley’s to return to Fort Wayne on Sunday, September 23 Greg’s leukemia cells were 0, with a warning that they would reappear from time to time until day 28 of treatment. Again, what took place during that time, the fight for life, is a different story. One that I don’t think I could EVER place into words. In fact, the entire 3 ½ years of chemotherapy is indescribable for me.

When we returned home there was a message from Irv Kloska stating that he would like us to call him. In the frenzy of bringing our very sick son home we failed to return the call. Irv called again on September 26. Irv said that on the day we left for Riley’s (September 19) the Blessed Mother told him as he prayed the Rosary after mass that Tom Fean had a son who needed to be consecrated to her. Remember, Irv had only met Tom once that summer and knew nothing about Tom, not even that he has a son. Later Irv said his daughter told him, “The Fean’s have a son who was recently diagnosed with leukemia.” She had heard through the grapevine.

Suddenly the message from the Blessed Mother made sense.

As I spoke with Irv he shared his desire with me to meet us and pray over our son. He suggested we meet in Rome City at Sylvan Springs the next evening (September 27). I had never heard of this place but it was a half-way point. Now that I look back, it seems strange that a married couple, in a time of absolute crisis, with a very sick child would go to a strange place to have strange people pray over him. We did this without any thought or even discussion.

That night (September 26), before our trip to Sylvan Springs, I was awakened by the smell of roses. There stood the Blessed Mother, next to our bed. She was standing with her arms outreached down toward me. Again she did not speak to me but somehow communicated to me that she was lovingly in control and that everything would be OK. This time she was dressed in beautiful regal colors and her garments were covered in brilliant jewels, especially on her crown. SHE WAS QUEEN.

The next day September 27 we met Irv at Sylvan Springs. With him was a priest (Fr Hoevel), the owner of Sylvan Springs (Larry Young), Irv’s friend (John Thomas) and Irv’s oldest son (Bobby Kloska). I must mention that Tom and I had known some of Irv’s children through the years. We recognized Bobby knowing we had met him before. The first thing I did was show them the back of I Am Your Jesus of Mercy with the image of the Blessed Mother as she appeared to me 2 years prior in my car. I knew this was significant; as I mentioned, the experiences in my car in 1999 came back to me while sitting at Greg’s hospital bed in 2001. The image of the Christ Child ……He was five years old and had Greg’s face. Now my five year old son Greg was fighting for his life. Immediately Bobby responded that he knew the author of that book, which happened to be a book about the personal experiences of the author with visions of the Blessed Mother. I then learned that the image is “Our Lady of Medjugorje“.

We proceeded to the chapel and prayed. Irv and Bobby placed their hands on Greg as Irv read a consecration prayer to the Blessed Mother, much like in the book Challenge and Change I had received from an unknown person the summer just prior to Greg’s diagnosis. Irv consecrated Greg to the Blessed Mother under the title "Our Lady of America" and prayed to Sister Mildred Neuzil to intercede for us on behalf of Greg.

Irv then instructed Tom to lift Greg up to touch the cross that had once belonged to Sr. Neuzil. It was she who had documented accounts of her canonically-approved apparitions of Our Lady of America when she resided at Sylvan Springs in 1956. Our Lady wanted America’s children to lead the world by the purity of their lives.

To be continued....