Hello, friends. Here’s our new Story of the Week:

On July 14, 1994, Fred and Bonnie Mott and their two young sons visited a wooded site in Seven Hills, Ohio. It had been rumored that a young woman was having visions of the Blessed Virgin Mary there and, although they knew the Catholic Church had not yet officially investigated the events, the Motts wanted to pray there.

They stayed at a farmhouse the night before the expected vision, and said the rosary with several other visitors. Seven-year-old Alex and six-year-old David were fidgety and restless throughout the prayers, and thought the entire evening was terribly boring. By the time they left for the apparition site the next evening, Bunny was wishing she had left them home.

It had rained earlier and as the family walked through the woods, the mosquitoes attacked them in clouds. Flushed and overheated, Alex and Dave raced around, chasing after a fawn that had been spotted behind a tree, shouting and arguing. As the rosary started, Bunny dragged them over to her side, resisting the impulse to scream. This trip was becoming a nightmare.

But to her surprise, as the seventy or so people there began to recite the rosary, David and Alex suddenly calmed down. In fact, they didn't move for the next hour, except to stand up with everyone else when the visionary announced that Mary, the mother of Jesus, was in their presence. It was a far cry from their behavior for the past two days.

None of the assembly seemed to see anything unusual. When prayer time was over, the Motts walked to their car, and decided to stop for a bite on the road on their way home. The boys were unusually docile, Bunny noticed; in fact, neither had spoken a word since the prayers had started.
The family found a fast food place, parked and went inside. The air conditioning was welcome.. Finally, after the family had ordered, Alex broke the silence.

"Mom, how did they make the clouds open up like that?" he asked.

Bunny was startled. "What do you mean, Alex?"

"When the blue thing came down. How did it get through the clouds?"

Bunny and Fred looked at each other, both sensing the importance of the moment. "Can you tell us what the 'blue thing' looked like?" Fred asked carefully.

"It was the thing the lady was wearing on her head," Alex explained.

David looked up. "She had on a blue dress too," he added.

"But lighter," Alex said. "Lighter blue than the thing on her head." David nodded.

Were their sons telling the truth? Had they actually seen something--someone--on the hill? Fred decided to question them separately, before they had a chance to compare notes.

And so he did. Over the next few days, Fred carefully quizzed his sons on the details of their experience, and they answered without hesitation or apparent concern, and without conferring with one another.

Both had apparently seen a lady at the site, and each described her clothes (including the 'blue thing'--a mantle on her head) and movements in much the same way, and drew similar pictures. They had also seen angels; David's were little cherubs "with bright circles above their heads," while Alex saw five large spirits wearing colors "like a rainbow, only not as shiny." Neither child had been at all afraid--of the lady or the experience.

"At first I hesitated to believe that such a thing could happen," Fred admits. "But now I have no doubt that the boys saw a vision. Maybe their slightly different views of angels was deliberate, so skeptics would not be able to say that they copied from each other."

Why would such a thing happen? Fred has no idea. "But we will regard it forever as a gift from heaven."