Story About Faith
Adorine and Anthony Albanese are both over 65 years of age. This is a true story of Adorine’s faith related by Anthony.
I came home after work and Adorine, as usual, was waiting in the driveway to open the garage for me. As she walked, I noticed that she was favoring her right leg. But as she began to tell me the day’s news, I stopped noticing the limp. In fact, Adorine was trying to hide it, so as not to worry me. But, she smiled in a strange way, as if she wanted to say something but didn’t know how to begin. Finally, in a nonchalant tone, she pointed to the three steps leading to the kitchen. “I fell today from the top of the stairs and I couldn’t get up,” she said.
I felt numb. Adorine is 75 years old. She had fallen only twenty inches or so, but the space was quite tight and, at her age, the accident could have been a catastrophe. But Adorine hastened to say that Baba, accelerating the speed of her karma, had protected her. Of that, I had no doubt.
She told me that as she fell, she cried, “Baba!, Baba!, Baba!” She landed over her twisted ankle and the pain was intense. She could hardly move, but with her mind on Baba, she managed to get up and immerse her foot in the sink. She let cool water run over her leg and foot, constantly repeating, “Baba, Baba, Baba…Blessed water heals, blessed water heals.” She kept remembering the time when Baba took upon Himself the paralyzing stroke of a devotee. He healed Himself by sprinkling water over his leg and arm.
She showed me her foot, which was still a bit swollen, but there were no ominous signs of damage other than a sprained ankle. She mentioned that lately some minor mishaps had been happening to her; she attributed all of them to paying off her karmic debt. She said that Baba was taking the brunt of her ‘incidents’ and minimizing the impacts by ‘instructing her’ on how to take care of herself.
Adorine has had one ‘incident’ after another, but she has come out of them with minor bruises—and with unshakable faith that it was for her good. Another person her age might have panicked and remained helpless on the floor. Instead, Adorine dragged herself to the bathroom, constantly repeating Baba’s name and imbued the water with the healing power of faith. Not only that she never even thought of calling me at the office for help. “What could you have done?” she said. “Baba took care of me.” And that was that!
This was not the end of the story; Adorine had promised to drive her neighbor to the doctor that day. She simply put some cream on her ankle, bandaged it, and proceeded to help her neighbor as promised. While waiting in the doctor’s office, an old lady, whose walking was impaired, came in. Adorine got up and offered the woman her chair.
“I am so happy that Baba answered my call,” says Adorine, “I called to Him from the agony of my heart to enable me to do the service I had planned for the day.” This was a lesson for me—and for others whose faith is shaken when undesirable things happen. The lesson is to remain undaunted and keep the name of the Lord always in mind.
I wanted to share this incident so it may provide inspiration to others in a moment of need.
~Anthony Albanese
New York, USA
