A Heroic and Inspiring True Love Story: The Sanctifying Power of Sacrificial Love

Now my Dad was not a person who would ever seek or relate to mystical experiences. So much so that if I would have told him that I had a vision while praying in church he would have scoffed and probably left the room.

I was therefore astonished as Dad related the following to me. He said that the previous night he was again awakened to find red light in his bedroom. This time there were three lights instead of one. He said he again got up and looked out the window to discover whether the light could be emanating from outside the bedroom. He said he even closed his door and the curtains to eliminate the possibility. He then again sat on the edge of his bed to smoke a cigarette to make sure he was awake. After the cigarette was put out he said, “I looked into the lights and suddenly the bedroom disappeared and there was Heaven. And there sat Vera on a throne. She was wearing a beautiful blue robe and looked as she did when she was about 30 years old but even more beautiful. There was a great light shining on her from beyond the edge of what I could see. Also standing beside her was an unrecognizable person all made of light. I thought it was her Guardian Angel. Seated on her lap were four children. I said to Vera, “I recognize the two sitting on your knees as Roger and Patricia (my brother the first born of my siblings, and my sister Patricia the last born both of whom died within one week of their birth) but who are the other children sitting on your lap?” And Vera said, “These are the two children we lost through miscarriage. They do not have any names. What do you want to call them?” Dad answered,, “Joseph and Mary.” Dad then said that standing near Vera’s side was a little girl. Dad asked, “Who is the little girl?” And Mom answered, “This is Katherine, the little girl that Phyllis and Richard lost through crib death." (She was our daughter who we lost at seven months.) Next my Dad said, “Then I saw the most amazing thing. Below Vera, beside her on both sides, and above her, as far back as I could see there were millions of babies. All of them looked different. And I asked Vera, “What are all these babies?” And she answered, “We got these from the abortion chambers.” Then Dad said, “Vera told me many other things but they are not your business.” And until the day he died in 1992 he never told me what Mom told him.

It is for the reader to discern both the validity of the experiences my Dad related to me and to glean insights meaningful to him or her. As for me, I have thought and prayed about what my Dad told me many times in the years since his death and am personally comfortable with any number of personal insights and interpretations. These I will keep mostly to myself. There are some the reader will find obvious, the consolation Dad received in seeing Mom and the children in Heaven, the joy of speaking to her and seeing her whole and happy. One can speculate about the secrets and assume some of them concerned my Dad’s destiny to be with Mom forever in heaven. But of all that transpired while Dad was caring for Mom and of all those things he related in his vision of her, there are these two that I think about most often. The first is Mom’s often repeated statement, “The Blessed Mother told me things.” I have often thought that, while Mom was in her coma, the Blessed Mother gave her a choice -- to die right then or, for reasons unknown to any of us on this earth, to accept the sacrifice of a 6 ½ year crucifixion. I do believe that Mom’s sacrifice, among other things, involved the salvation of her family and perhaps the Blessed Mother made that precise promise to her.

The second involves Dad’s vision of the aborted babies in Heaven. My mother was an ardent right-to-life activist, literally from the time of the 1973 Roe vs. Wade decision that legalized abortion in the United States. I find it fascinating and heartwarming to think that God will for all eternity associate my mother with those children whose lives she prayed and worked so diligently to protect.

~ Deacon Richard Tappe: Read the whole inspiring story  here ~