The Black Nazarene 2

Dear mouse,

In my previous blog, my mom believed that her prayers were answered on that Christmas day. So people said it was her strong faith.

What about a miracle for a non-believer?

After my father died, my mom decided to bring the family back to our province. She was a young widow then and she was afraid of raising the brood in a big City. But my brother had a freak accident that crippled him from waist down. Not even the well-known "manghihilots ng pilay" in Magarao, can make him walk again.

Like a mother-hen, she brought us all to the City in her efffort to seek medication for my brother.

The cost of the surgery at the Orthopedic was beyond our reach. The prognosis was a misalignment of the hipbone due to his fall. Worse was, flesh had already covered the affected part. The flesh had to be removed before the bones would be brought back to their original positions.

My mom knocked at every doorstep of some relatives who were beneficiaries of my generous grandmother's charitable acts.

One wanted our jeepney, a source of our income.Talking about "ginigipit para kumapit sa patalim.".

In her desperation, she asked my brother who was a non-believer, to go to Quiapo and pray.

With the assistance from other siblings, he did what he considered hopeless but,there was no harm in trying.

So he did pray.

He went home.

The next day, he got up from bed. He walked. He forgot that he was cripple for months.

My mom sighed a prayer of thanks. She promised she would go to Quiapo every first Friday of January. She did not care if she went home late in the night after the procession.

The Ca t