“It’s a miracle.” This is how Mrs. Glendy Tejero described the help she received from Heaven, through the intercession of Dona Lucilia, at a time when the doctors thought her son’s death was imminent.
Glendy, a good Catholic and catechist, lives in the city of Mérida, Mexico. She is a biochemical engineer, married and the mother of two children: Regina, aged seven, and Luis, four. Difficulties knocked on her door at the start of the pandemic, when her husband lost his job. In this difficult situation, she came into contact with the Heralds via social media and, shortly afterwards, consecrated herself as a slave of love to the Blessed Virgin.
An unknown devotion…
In the meantime, her mother, Rosario, learned about Dona Lucilia’s life and said to her: “My daughter, look, there is a lady who works miracles.” But as her mother did not give her name or any other specific information, and the family’s only current problem was financial difficulties, Glendy simply asked in a joking tone: “Does she give money? I hope she comes round one day with some money for me!”
Glendy tells us: “I didn’t really take any notice of what my mom told me; I didn’t believe her. She insisted: ‘She’s a lady who works miracles!’ But I got annoyed every time she repeated it, I felt like she was wasting my time with these things. She sent me Dona Lucilia’s life via WhatsApp, but I didn’t even download the video.”
The beginning of a long ordeal
However, in January 2022 she took her son Luis to a doctor’s appointment where he was diagnosed with a terrible illness: juvenile idiopathic arthritis. It was necessary to treat him with methotrexate. This drug, which has a number of adverse effects, caused a severe weakening of the boy’s natural immune system. It was just the beginning of a long ordeal, as Glendy tells us:
“My son was still unwell. In November, in addition to methotrexate, the doctors prescribed cyclosporine, another very strong drug used by people who have had bone marrow and organ transplants. That same month, his natural defences completely collapsed. Then the pulmonologist detected sinusitis. And his face was swollen.
“On 24 December I noticed rashes on his lips. The next day I noticed a black spot in his mouth. A day later, this black spot covered the entire roof of his mouth. I immediately took him to the emergency room, where it was discovered that he had mucormycosis, a very dangerous fungus that was rapidly spreading to the brain. Then the doctor said to me: ‘It is mucormycosis; your son only has three days to live.’ I was somewhat disorientated, because it was so hard for me to comprehend that I was going to lose him.”
Everything worsened in the hospital
With no expectation of success, the doctors began treatment with amphotericin B to contain the infection, but this antifungal drug affected the boy’s kidneys. At the same time, blood tests pointed to the possibility that Luis also had leukaemia, which is why the doctors did not want to expose him to the risks of surgery. This meant forgoing the only recourse they had to try and save his life.
The boy had to undergo a bone marrow aspiration to verify that he did not have leukaemia, and only then did they carry out a surgical debridement to contain the fungus.
All the doctors told Glendy that her son was going to die. This upset her so much that she could no longer meet with them. In this increasingly distressing situation, she felt her faith weakening, until one day Dona Lucilia came to her aid.
An enigmatic dream
In mid-November, Glendy had a dream: “I dreamt,” she says, “that I was in a place that looked like a doctor’s office, but one that was unfamiliar to me. I remember seeing a white-haired lady, about sixty years old, who came up to me and told me that my son was fine and that I just needed to trust her.” In the midst of so many worries, the dream seemed to have no meaning.
Rosario, concerned for her grandson’s life, advised her daughter to ask Dona Lucilia for a miracle. “But who is Dona Lucilia?” asked Glendy. Her mother gave her a brief explanation and referred her to the Heralds of the Gospel website, where she could find more detailed information.
One evening, after following the Rosary of the Day on YouTube with her daughter, Glendy decided to watch other Heralds of the Gospel programmes, including this one:Dona Lucilia, a Lady Full of Virtues and a Great Intercessor before God. What a surprise it was when she came across a familiar face… This is how she recounts the emotion she felt: “When I started watching the video about Dona Lucilia’s life, I had a big surprise: ‘It can’t be! This is the lady I dreamt about and who told me that my son was fine! Am I going mad? Can she really help me?’”
“I’m going to ask for her intercession”
And she immediately made up her mind: “My God, I’m going to ask Dona Lucilia to intercede for me, because – so I thought… – hardly anyone knows her, therefore no one is asking her for anything and she’ll be able to listen attentively to me. So I’m going to ask for her intercession. I saw on the programme the prayer made by a person who needed money to pay the rent, I took a screenshot, which I still have on my mobile phone, and I prayed that same prayer, asking for my son’s healing. I clung to her and asked her with all my strength that through her intercession my son would be saved.”
We will see below that Dona Lucilia did not ignore the plea of this afflicted mother.
Luis managed to survive the operation. However, the doctors had no doubt about the fatal nature of his illness and warned the family that his death was imminent. Interned in an isolated area of the ICU, the little boy literally hovered between life and death.
The medical team thought it would be his last night, due to the lack of reaction from his body and the fact that the fungus was getting closer and closer to his brain. That is why Glendy was allowed to spend a few minutes with him to say goodbye. Luis was unconscious, intubated and wearing a kind of capsule on his head.
The inexplicable happens!
Once at his bedside, Glendy gave vent to the anguish that was suffocating her. She took the opportunity to hug her son’s almost-lifeless body and, between sobs, said to him: “My little son, if Mamma Mary and Jesus are calling you, go with them, don’t think about me, I’ll be fine, I’ll just ask God for the strength for this.” Still hugging her son, she sang the Magnificat hymn, which she and the little boy loved, and got ready to leave, as visiting time in intensive care was only ten minutes.
However, when she laid Luis back in the bed, she noticed that he moved. The boy sat up and began to remove the tubes. Then the doctor told the distressed mother to wait outside the room. She stood at the door with her husband. And they both heard the little patient shouting that he wanted to see his mom and dad. What’s more, he wanted pudding and juice!
“For me, it’s a miracle,” writes Glendy, “it’s something I can’t explain. It can only be the work of God, there’s no other explanation. My husband noticed that, from that day on, my son seemed to come back to life, he started eating, he started talking, and the doctors said he was doing very well… For me, at that moment the miracle was already done. However, they told me: ‘We can’t continue treating him here because it’s too serious; he needs to be examined by other doctors, in a more advanced hospital. We will take him to Mexico City.’”
New trials
Glendy continues: “A few days before we left for the capital, I went to the hospital in the evening. Everything was perfect. A doctor came into the room and started examining my son, who was asleep. As he didn’t like what he saw, he immediately switched on all the lights and ran out. A few seconds later the room was full of doctors and equipment. I asked what was happening and one of them replied that my son was having a cardiac arrest. Without understanding the seriousness of the case, I asked: ‘But will he be all right?’ The answer: ‘Ma’am, your son could die right now!’”
Glendy continued to trust in the favour that she had already obtained and, thanks to God, this new danger was also averted. His potassium levels had dropped a lot as a result of the amphotericin, but after Luis was medicated, there were no major complications.
There followed another period of trials in Mexico City: treatments, surgeries, hospitalizations, during which the doctors still feared the worst. For Glendy, however, a light had flooded the dark tunnel she was travelling:
“You know what? I never doubted it. When they made those negative diagnoses, I said: ‘God will do what He wants here.’ The doctors in Mexico City would tell me that my son was going to die, and I would laugh inside, sure that, God willing, he would come back to me. I’m not going to lie, I was also very scared. I cried, I suffered and I felt completely alone in a place where I didn’t know anyone. But I felt that my faith returned after what happened.”
A promise of gratitude
In April, Luis was finally discharged. He will still have to undergo various treatments because he lost his septum, which had to be removed, and a good part of his palate. But he is fine now!
Glendy concludes, overflowing with gratitude: “This is the story of how Dona Lucilia worked a miracle in my son’s life because, without knowing her, without knowing anything about her, she had already given me hope that my son would get well. I asked her with a lot of faith and promised that I would take my son to wherever she wished, and I would publicize it so that people would know about the miracle she had worked.”
An incurable hernia
No less maternal was the help granted by Dona Lucilia to Mr. José Ferreira, a resident of Matias Barbosa, Minas Gerais (Brazil); and no less expressive is his gratitude after being favoured by this kind lady.
Having read in Heralds of the Gospel magazine the numerous accounts of people who had asked for Dona Lucilia’s intercession and were heeded, José Ferreira became her devotee. And since he himself was suffering from a practically incurable illness, he did not hesitate to call on her help.
For more than thirty years, José had been suffering from an oesophageal hiatus hernia. It was small at first, but according to the opinion of a doctor at the time, it could not be eradicated by surgery. Over time, it grew very large and caused him serious discomfort. For the last ten years, he had been unable to eat properly due to continual gastro-oesophageal reflux and terrible bouts of vomiting. All this resulted in considerable weight loss.
His daughter Deborah describes his suffering as follows: “My father is a good man from the old days, who enjoyed a bountiful table with many guests gathered in our home. Because of his illness, he became very isolated. He was also forced to sleep sitting up because he couldn’t rest his head on a low pillow for even five minutes.” At this stage of his illness, when his family and the doctors thought there was no chance of reversing it, José clung to his devotion to Dona Lucilia. Deborah recounts:
“Through prayers, and over time, without any kind of medication, he got much better! He told us that he asked her to help him eat the things he liked. He also told us that he had dreamt of Dona Lucilia, who told him that she was going to help him recover and be able to eat normally. Indeed, he improved. Nowadays my father eats as he used to – avoiding some foods, of course – and can sleep lying down with two pillows! He attributes this grace to his devotion to her.”
And the story does not stop there. Having suffered a fall, as a result of which he was in danger of never being able to walk again, it was with Dona Lucilia’s help that José endured five operations. She became his favourite intercessor, whose aid he recommends to anyone who needs any kind of help.
A “little chapel” where he finds refreshment for his soul
In June 2021, as a token of gratitude for so many favours received from Dona Lucilia, he wanted to build a small oratory for private devotions, giving her a place of honour in it. When his daughters thought the plan might be an exaggeration on his part, he replied emphatically:
“No, you don’t realize how much I’ve improved, and how much I owe her!”
So the picturesque “little chapel”, as he calls it, was built on the family farm, a place that Mr. Ferreira visits every day, taking the opportunity to tend to the vegetable garden and say his prayers. It is there that he finds refreshment for his soul, calms his spirit when impatience threatens to cloud his mood, and asks for help in times of difficulty.
In this way, he hopes to be able to publicize this private devotion in a world that is increasingly in need of the light and maternal consolation that Dona Lucilia brings. ◊
