Among the people who came to pray with us was an elderly sister, Sister Peggy (Sister Mary Edmund), who worked in a hospice for the terminally ill and dying in Cheam, six or seven miles away. She came to us one day and asked for prayers for Joseph who was being difficult. Joseph had been admitted to the hospice since he was in great pain and had not long to live. Like all her patients, Sister Peggy had raised him in prayer to the Lord and had asked us to join with her in asking the Lord to give him peace since he seemed to be a troubled soul.
One day he said to Sister Peggy, “who was that nun who came to visit me last night?”. Sister Peggy assured him that no nun, other than herself had been in the ward during the night. However, Joseph insisted that someone did come into the ward and stand beside his bed.
“What did she look like?” ask Sister Peggy.
Joseph pointed to the statue of Thérèse of Lisieux, saying, “she was dressed differently. She was wearing clothes exactly like that.” No-one else had seen this person and no explanation was found. We rejoiced that perhaps it was a sign that our sister in Christ, that ‘heavenly witness’ as St. Paul puts it, had joined us in our prayers of intercession for this man.
A few weeks later when Sister Peggy had joined us at the prayer group, I had a mental picture of a fifty-year-old man, sitting in an armchair with a multi-colored shawl over his shoulders. I described him to Sister Peggy and asked if this was Joseph I was seeing. She assured me it was.
We continued to pray for him and one day Sister Peggy turned up, full of praise and thanksgiving saying that Joseph had been befriended by an Anglican Vicar, his attitude to God and life was changing and he was thinking about becoming a Christian. Joseph was Jewish. Although we never met, I felt close to this man and our friendship continued in prayer. We rejoiced again the day Sr. Peggy told us he had been baptized.
Sometime later, Sister Peggy came to the house and said that Joseph wanted to go home before he died, and he asked for my prayers. This we all did and prayed for Joseph who went home for a full year and died as a Christian, surrounded by family and friends at home.
His wife, who never met me, sent me the multi-colored shawl which I still have and treasure and a plant which we planted in the garden of the house in Kingston.