MONDAY, APRIL 16, TO SUNDAY, APRIL 22, 1962:

Mercedes Salisachs in 1950

THE "HOLY WEEK" AT GARABANDAL

Mercedes Salisachs, a Catalonian mother of five children, and also a woman of Letters well known in Spain, became an outstanding protagonist of the Garabandal event. She went to the famous little village four times, her first and overwhelming stay occurring during the Holy Week of April 1962. And quite understandably, since she was then to learn, at the end of the paschal vigil, through Mari-Loli but on behalf of the Blessed Virgin, that one of her sons, Miguel, a young talented artist-painter, killed in a car accident at the age of twenty-one, "was in heaven and that he was 'accompanying' her every day!"
[From 'Garabandal' Book, page 130]

This one little paragraph does not tell the whole story about Mercedes Salisachs. I read more about her and her trials in other books about Garabandal. It seems that after her son died she had stopped going to church or even praying, because she was upset with God for taking her son from her at such an early age. Many of us have lost children or loved ones, and we have questioned God with "Why did he or she die and leave me?" But most of us do not lose our faith and stop going to church, as a matter of fact, some of us are brought closer to God because of the death of a loved one. Mercedes wondered if her son was in heaven, and that drove her to go to Garabandal, in the hopes of finding out where he was, heaven or hell! So she asked the girls to ask the Blessed Mother about her son. Each time they asked, Our Lady ignored the question and did not answer. Little by little, as Mercedes watched the girls in ecstasy and saw them talking to Mother Mary, her faith started to return, but so did her conscience. It told her that she needed to go to confession, and she did. Well, guess what! As soon as Mercedes was back in good graces with God through the Sacrament of Confession, that's when Our Lady told the girls that Mercedes' son "was in heaven and that he was 'accompanying' her every day!"

A great story and a good lesson for us. There's a time to be born, and a time to die! But we really never die, we just pass on to a New Life in God, [Our Lady said "it's like walking from one room to another."] and we never leave our loved ones who stay here on earth. We will be able to see them and pray for them while we await their day to fly to heaven. The saints say that as long as the person on earth is in a 'state of grace', our family members in heaven can see us! That's another reason to keep ourselves free of mortal sin, praise God!
Roman Deacon