Today’s Miracle Monday, written by Sister Edith Terrill, comes from the pages of the September 1949 issue of The Gospel News. This one is for all of you who are living in small outposts, away from the main body of the Church.

I wish to relate an experience as told to me by a woman here in Meadville. She had been ill with a nervous breakdown for two years. She had been under a severe strain during the illness of her aged mother and had overworked taking care of her.

She walked two and one-half miles to her mother’s home, bathing, dressing, and feeding her, then walking back to her own home and doing her own work. At the end of six weeks, the mother died, but she (the daughter) could not shed a tear and became very ill.

During the time of July Conference, I called at her home and inquired after her health. This is how she answered me: “I am better now since the man we both know came and prayed for me.”

Being surprised and curious to learn who the man was, I asked her to tell me about it. She said: An old man came to her door one day. He carried something under his arm, a book she thought. He seemed to perceive her condition.

“You seem depressed; you are griefstricken; you have lost someone.”

“Yes,” she replied, “I have lost my mother.”

“Then that is what has done this to you,” he stated. “Let us pray about it.”

He knelt down inside her door and prayed for her. A cloud seemed to lift away as he prayed. She inquired of him of his Church. He asked her, “Do you know Mr. and Mrs. Terrill on Grove Street near North?” She replied that she did. “I belong to their Church,” he asserted, “though I believe it is Mrs. Terrill who belongs to the Church.”

He told her that he traveled great distances on foot. When she offered to get him something to eat, he refused it, saying he had a sandwich in his pocket. She told him she was able to cook for her husband, although she could not eat and her doctor was about ready to send her to a hospital to be fed through her veins.

After his visit, her depression and melancholy left her, and she started to recover. She became reconciled to losing her mother, and she told me that she now believes that death is as natural as birth. We both were greatly blessed as she spoke of the old man’s visit and of God’s faithfulness in answering prayer.

Original Editor’s Note from the 1949 issue: We may all wonder as to who the old man was, for we know not of any old man of this Church that is or has been traveling in that neighborhood. To all the members of this Church: I want to say that it is a wonderful thing if God has sent a messenger to the town of Meadville, Pa., to a sick woman, where we have only one member in the town, Sister Terrill, and the old man represents himself as belonging to the same Church. All believers in the Book of Mormon are acquainted with the fact that three of the Nephite brethren are to tarry until Jesus comes in His glory. They will be among the Gentiles and they shall know them not. May God help us all to be more faithful.

This article has undergone ministry review and approval.