A couple of days ago I watched this delightful movie on Netflix. It takes place in 1967 in the United Kingdom. It stars Dame Maggie Smith in her last role. The film was made in 2023 and she died last month at age 89.
It also stars Laura Linney and Kathie Bates.
The story centers around each of them being able to travel to Lourdes, a town in France and a major Catholic pilgrimage site. In 1858, the Virgin Mary is said to have appeared to a 14 year old peasant girl and told her to dig in the ground nearby, from which came a spring with healing properties.
Each year millions of people make this pilgrimage.
So, in one sense, this is a road trip movie. Unfortunately the waters of the grotto in Lourdes, healed none of those who rode the bus, along with their priest, and others from the their home village in the UK.
However, in the end, as they exited the bus, every single person in this film experienced healing. Not in a supernatural way, but in a way I believe God allows most of us to heal.
Now, I want to share with you my own personal miracle. Two plus months ago, when I was leaving my friend and massage therapist Linda's, office, I dropped my hearing aid in the parking lot.
I didn't discover this until I got home because I was sure it was in my purse. (Almost every lost item eventually turns up in my purse.) I called Linda and she searched for the hearing aid but "no luck."
This hearing aid is very expensive and must be fine tuned. I wear only one because the hearing in my left ear is kaput! However, I have its mate, so, after a trip to the audiologist, I was back in business.
SIX WEEKS LATER Linda called to tell me someone in her office complex had given her the hearing aid that he'd found in the parking lot. Knowing it would be useless, I told her to hang on to it until our next appointment. That was yesterday, two month after I'd lost it. It wasn't smashed like a pancake the way I thought it would be.
I brought it home, left it in the charger overnight, and BAZINGA! I'm wearing it right now.***