How Our Lady of the Rosary
Saved a Little Girl from Death
and Touched Thousands
US ARMY SURGEON
GENERAL NADJA WEST
Saint Dominic’s Church,
home of the Rosary
Shrine of Saint Jude, was
proud to host US Army
Surgeon General Nadja
West as she told the
story of her remarkable
upbringing and devotion
to Saint Jude and Our
Lady. Here is the text
of her talk:
I would like to highlight the life of one woman
whose story is not very well known. Hers is truly
a story of faith, resilience, and perseverance that I
think you might find interesting, because she truly
embodies our values and beliefs, our devotion to
Our Lady, spirituality, and service to others. And
she was really a big fan of Saint Jude as well.
Her name was Mabel and she was born in the early
1900s in Hot Springs Arkansas, the granddaughter
of slaves and the second oldest child of a family
headed by her father, who with his wife raised
seven children on the money he made from tips
as a bellman, carrying luggage for guests at the
Arlington Hotel at Hot Springs Resort (still in
operation today by the way.)
Her father died of a heart attack at a young age,
which left her mother to raise seven children by
herself. And as we remember from our history,
growing up in the 1900s during the depression
era was very challenging to say the least.
Early in her childhood Mabel became very ill
ST. JUDE MESSENGER • VOLUME IV, ISSUE I
with high fevers and stomach pains. The family
doctor who came to the home diagnosed her
with peritonitis, which is basically inflammation
of the abdominal cavity and was later found out
to be due to a ruptured appendix. As you know,
acute appendicitis is a surgical emergency, and
the doctor told Pearl, Mabel’s mother, that she
would die without surgery. Well the family didn’t
have money for surgery and there were very few
alternatives at that time in the segregated south.
And so the doctor, though he seemed to truly care,
told the family there was really nothing he could
do, but he would try to make Mabel comfortable
until she died. Well, Pearl did not want to hear
that she would be losing her daughter and was
determined that Mabel would live. Pearl’s motto
was that with God anything was possible, and
she transferred that determination and reliance
on God to her daughter and it remained with her
all throughout her life.
“The doctor
told Pearl,
Mabel’s mother,
that she would die
without surgery.”
Mabel did survive although she did have complications
from the untreated ruptured appendix. She later
told her mother about seeing a beautiful lady who
kept smiling at her and who was holding a kind of
necklace in her hand while she was unconscious.
Remember that point for later.
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