From my brother, Steve, about his wife, Regina

THIS IS THE STORY OF THE LAST 45 DAYS OF HER LIFE. SHE WAS LAID TO REST ON SEPTEMBER 10, 2001.

It was August 15th, 2001, she was at St Mary's Hospital in Kansas City MO. She was bleeding internally and the blood was so much

in her body cavity that she had a hard time breathing. The blood did not leave enough room for her lungs to expand. I was home in Conception Junction, Missouri because I was up at the hospital for about a month; so, I took off that day to go home and pay some bills, etc.

I received a call to come to the hospital as soon as I could because Regina's condition had changed and it was very serious. I jumped in my car and took off as fast as I could to make it to the hospital and wanted to get there before she died.

Well, here is what happened and I did not find out about this for another 18 hours. Reggie's hospital room was filled with doctors and nurses.They wanted to poke a device into my wife's body cavity to suction out the blood that was filling up her body so her lungs could start working.

Now, the doctor who was going to do the procedure asked Regina for her permission to start but she refused. He looked at her and told her in a very faint voice to first pray with him. He had to put his ear to her lips because he could not hear her voice. When he heard her say she wanted everyone in the room to pray, he said, “WE DO NOT HAVE TIME FOR THAT, YOU ARE GOING DIE IN A FEW MOMENTS”.

A nurse, who just walked into the room, heard Regina's plea for the prayer. She reached over the bed and grasped Regina’s hand and she prayed the “OUR FATHER”. All the doctors and nurses in the room prayed together for my wife. After the prayer they inserted the needle and relived the pressure on the lungs - they started to work again.

I got up to the hospital at about 3 in morning but she was out cold and slept real sound. When I went to the Nurses station, they just told me about the scare but none of the details. I was confident the emergency was over so I went to the top floor of the hospital, where I was about to sleep in a section of the hospital that was used for family who were there for the patients. I had been using the room for over a month at this point. In the late afternoon, after eating and a good shower, I went to see if my wife was awake and about to talk.

When I walked into her room she was very anxious to see me. She told me what had happened and how the nurse walked in and how the whole room took the time to pray. Then she told me something that I did not know really happened or not.

She said that when the nurse took her had and they all started to pray, she saw the face of Jesus in the eyes of the nurse!  I was very skeptical and I reminded her that she had been taking a lot of drugs and I told her that maybe she thought she saw that but it may not have really happened.

I made her a little mad and she said “I know what I saw and I know it was true”. I promised to go see the nurse and ask her about the incident. It seems that the nurse was from another floor and she was just helping out the night before. She was from another section of the hospital and so I went up to another floor to see her.

Darn - she was off for the next day or so; I could not get her story for a day or so. Two days later, she was back at work and I approached her and told her who I was and I wanted to thank her for working with my wife but I did not tell her yet about the sight my wife said she saw in this woman's eyes.

SHE SAID “NO NO NO DO NOT THANK ME, I WANT TO THANK YOUR WIFE”. I said why would you want to thank my wife because you reached out to help my wife. [NOW THIS IS THE REAL MIRACLE!]

The nurse told me that meeting my wife changed her whole life! She went on to say when I touched your wife's hand and started to pray, I SAW JESUS IN HER EYES! She went on to say that she had been dealing with a dead-beat Dad, who has been harassing her day in and day out for years. She went on to say that when she got off that day, she went to get an order on him to stay away from her, her kids, her work and her home.

She also said she now had a lawyer and she is going after him for back child support. “Meeting your wife and seeing Jesus in her eyes was the best thing that has ever happened to me and I am never going to be scared of him again”!

When I had a chance to get a word in edgewise, I told her about my wife seeing Jesus in her eyes too. Reggie was so happy and filled with joy when I told her about the nurse and what happened in the woman's life. My wife said she saw Jesus almost daily or an Angel and even the Blessed Mother!

My wife slipped into a coma about the 30th of August and I never was able to talk to her again. Some people said they could tell the room was filled with the Spirit when they saw her. Her whole family and my family was there, by her side, when she passed away. 

The morning she passed, my Father-In-Law told her “HEY REGGIE DO NOT GIVE UP BECAUSE BOTTINI'S NEVER GIVE UP”. She gave us a big smile, so we knew she could hear us. We were chased out of the room and we all went into a nice room and we prayed and talked and waited but nobody was allowed to see her for about 3 hours.

About 4 doctors and 2 nurses then walked into the room. I have never seen so many workers at any hospital all crying at one time but I saw it that day. YOU SEE IF YOU EVER MET REGINA MARIA BOTTINI HOLDENRIED, YOU LOVE HER!

She passed away on the 7th of September and she was buried on the 10th of September. The church was filled to capacity and there was about 10 priests that said Mass including Father Matt from St Joseph, MO.

I gave the Eulogy and I made it all the way through without crying. The Bishop was there and he told me later that I missed my calling. My relatives said there was not a dry eye in the house. I have one more thing to add and I made this my main point with my Eulogy because this is the lesson my wife wanted all of her kids and me to remember:

YOU WILL NEVER KNOW THE TIME, THE DAY OR THE PLACE WHEN JESUS COMES BACK. ONLY THE FATHER KNOWS, SO YOU MUST BE PREPARED!