(50 for 50 series) Ray Smecker recibió una Medalla Milagrosa cuando hizo su Primera Comunión en Munhall, Pensilvania, en 1954. Ha llevado Medallas Milagrosas desde entonces y han marcado la diferencia en su vida, incluso le han llevado a una relación especial con Santa Isabel Ana Seton.
He credits the medal with saving his life after a head on collision in 1991 in Broomall, PA. After the crash he was rushed to a Broomall hospital where he was told he had a cracked sternum and other major injuries. In the emergency room Ray explains that a priest noticed his Miraculous Medal and said, “You don’t need, my blessing.”
Ray was transferred from the Broomall Hospital to the Doylestown hospital closer to his home in Ottsville, PA. The releasing Broomall ICU head nurse said, “I’m here to see the miracle man. In my 25 years here in the Broomall Hospital ICU you are the only survivor of these types of injuries.”
Six months later Ray went back to work but had painful complications and was facing forced retirement when an Episcopalian friend intervened saying, “I am taking you to the Mother Seton Shrine and once you get there you will understand and be OK.”
Rays says, “I saw the giant Miraculous Medal scene on the wall and knelt there and after many Shrine visits with my wife Megan and making a Novena my prayer to Mother Seton was to be completely pain-free.”
On the last day of his Novena, Ray says they read the Civil War plaque and he then promised Mother Seton, “No matter what, I will write a book about your sisters’ involvement in tending to wounded and dying men…and let the world know of the DOC and SOC good Civil War works.”
Ray sums up his story humbly. “I have never had one pain from that accident after the last day of that Novena. And I have kept my promise and wrote the book, El color del brandy, dedicated to Mother Seton.”
(En la foto, Ray Smecker y su esposa Megan. Foto cortesía de Ray Smecker).
50 for 50 es una serie de relatos de gente corriente para conmemorar el 50 aniversario de la canonización de Elizabeth Ann Seton como primera santa estadounidense nacida en el país.