Rita's Story Part II
- Sandra Hansen
- Aug 29
- 8 min read
As we continue with the second part of Rita’s story, I would encourage you to read Part 1 if you haven’t done so yet. It will help to get the complete story of Rita and her spiritual healing to fully understand the miracle of her physical healing and how incredible it was.
After Rita’s spiritual healing, while her interior peace and relationship with God continued to grow, her physical condition continued to deteriorate. With strength and muscle in her upper legs completely gone, she had to be fitted for heavy, full length steel braces. The weakening in her upper body strength also had her using the wheelchair more often than the crutches. After her beautiful spiritual healing, however, Rita didn’t seem to mind at all. She felt infused with Christ and filled with His joy.
She was still able to teach and got a job teaching religion and science at the local Catholic school. God’s grace continued to flow in her life, and prayer came naturally as she felt incredibly blessed. During the next several years the disease progressed, the bills piled up, and in 1985, she was admitted to a rehab hospital for a month to receive a comprehensive evaluation. The final diagnosis was progressive spinal MS, a permanently deformed right leg, dropped ankles, no bladder or bowel control, and severe loss of muscle tone. The list went on and on, but they told her that in 3 to 5 years she would be completely paralyzed. They were certain there was no chance of remission, as the damage was permanent and non-reversible. The feeling in her legs was gone and could not come back, her bones were distorted and out of alignment and her bladder was beyond repair. She didn’t ask about the prognosis after the paralysis was complete, as she didn’t want to know.
In the winter of 1986, Rita came across an article in Reader’s Digest about Medjugorje. (To learn more about Medjugorje, check out the earlier post on this blog) As she read the article, something in her heart told her this was true. Not long after that she received a book on Medjugorje, and she knew without a doubt this was happening. The Blessed Mother was appearing to six visionaries, and through them was appealing for everyone to pray, fast, do penance and reconcile with God.
Rita wanted to do what our Lady asked, but of course as sick as she was, she didn’t know if she should fast. However, she began to fast on bread and water for breakfast and lunch on Wednesdays and Fridays, as our Lady asked, and had no problems doing so. Summer came and school was out, and she enrolled in a scripture course which met each morning for 2 weeks.
To get to the class, her husband had to help her into a special car with hand controls and put her wheelchair in the back. At the college, her friend Laverne would be waiting and get the chair out and wheel her into class. On Wednesday, June 18th, 1986, Rita was having a particularly difficult day. MS is heat-reactive, and the heat added to her muscle weakness and exhaustion. Rita asked Ron to help her up to bed as soon as she got home from class and stayed there the remainder of the day. The girls brought her dinner, and she prayed and read until she felt drowsy. Just as she was dozing off to sleep, she heard the most beautiful voice say to her, “Why don’t you ask?”
Looking around the room and seeing no one, Rita’s first thought was “Ask what?” Immediately she was given an answer, and she found herself speaking words aloud with no prior knowledge of what they were:
“Mary, my mother, Queen of Peace, whom I believe is appearing at Medjugorje,
please ask your son to heal me in any way I need to be healed. I know your Son has
said that if you have faith, and you say to the mountains: move, that they will move.
I believe. Please help my unbelief.”
Immediately she felt electricity run through her body, and it felt like bubbly champagne. The feeling was pleasant, and particularly strong on her right side (where her deformed kneecap was), and at once she fell asleep. The next thing she knew it was morning, and she had accidentally overslept. She quickly woke up Ron so he could help her get ready and then get her into the car. She remembered nothing from the night before, not the prayer, or the tingling that went through her body.
Arriving at school late, she had to lay on the horn until someone from the school came out to get her and her wheelchair and wheel her to class. Around mid-morning, just before break time, an unbelievable rush of heat started in her feet, up her legs, and then through her whole body. Immediately she began to itch, feeling like pins and needles were all over her body. She then noticed she was moving her toes and feeling the cracks on the inside of her shoes, and she had not had feelings in her toes for years! Mesmerized by what was happening in her body, she paid no attention to the rest of the class and was anxious to get home to see what this was all about.
Her friend LaVerne helped her back into her van after class, and when she arrived home, no one was there. Ron had promised to take the girls strawberry picking that day. He had left Rita’s crutches and a chair outside, for her to sit and wait until they arrived home. However, she felt the need to use the bathroom, which was another miracle, as she had been incontinent for 2 years. She grabbed the crutches and started to make her way up the stairs.
The doctors had forbidden her to use the steps alone, but her urgency to use the bathroom made this an emergency, she felt. She moved her way up the stairs easily and was not even winded! She began to think this was some kind of strange remission, as she still had no recollection of the previous night.
After making her way to the bathroom, she unlocked her braces so that she could bend at the knee and sit down. When she looked down at her knees, she screamed! Her right leg was no longer deformed, and the kneecap was on top of her knee. Her two legs matched! She began screaming “My leg is straight!” while making her way to the living room to remove her braces. This was not a remission, this was a miracle!
She made her way to the foot of the stairs, and suddenly her whole life flashed before her; scenes of all of the beautiful things that had happened in her life, all the way up until the night before, the voice she heard, the prayer she prayed, and the feeling she had felt through her body. All had been blocked from her memory until that moment. She realized then that she was completely healed.
Up the stairs and back down she ran, then outside, screaming “Thank you God, thank you Blessed Mother! I’ve got to tell somebody!” She came in and quickly called her Pastor, Father Bergman, and began yelling, “I can run! I can run! I don’t have MS anymore!” Father was quite concerned, and realizing it was Rita, told her to sit down and call her doctor!
She finally got hold of a friend, who lived close and came right over. Her friend was also in shock at first and then thrilled as she and Rita danced and jumped for joy. She insisted they drive to the strawberry farm to find Ron and the girls. However, when they arrived at the farm it was closed so they headed back to find the family already at home. Her friend went into the house to prepare them, and when Ron came out, he exclaimed, “My God!” Rita hugged him and began to dance an Irish jig, Kristen and Ellen were crying while Heidi kept saying over and over, “Mom stop! Mom’s aren’t supposed to act like this!” Rita responded, “You don’t understand. Jesus healed me through His holy Mother!” It was truly pandemonium.
When Rita awoke the next morning, she thought it had all been a dream. Yet when she lifted the sheet, she saw that her leg was straight and realized she was truly healed. A wave of fear engulfed her, until she again heard the calm interior voice of Jesus, “Why are you afraid? I am the same today as I was yesterday and will be forever. I have asked you to be a sign to my people, of the heritage that they are in danger of losing, the heritage which is rightfully theirs, won by my own precious blood.”
There were gasps and whispers as Rita entered her church on Sunday. The Gospel that day was the man who was born crippled, whom Jesus healed, and who went dancing through the streets rejoicing. The Pastor’s voice broke as he read it, and Ron had tears streaming down his face. It was a day of jubilation for her entire family and community.
On Monday Ron and Rita went to see the Doctor and had called ahead of time. Half of the staff were waiting for them, many in shock. Some doctors were convinced she must have a twin sister! After a complete neurological exam, everything was normal, and the doctor just shook his head and said he had no explanation. It truly was a miracle.
All her medical records were submitted to the local bishop, and then to a medical commission in Rome. She had doctor visits and a multitude of tests each year for 10 years, as that was required by the Church to study Rita’s healing. There were never any signs of MS, and it was officially declared a miracle. Rita often stated, however, that given the choice, she would always choose her spiritual healing over the physical one. While the physical healing was incredible, it was the spiritual healing that gave Rita her life back. It was the spiritual healing that united her heart to Jesus once more and brought His peace back into her life.
When I first heard Rita share her story, what I remember most was that in an instant I knew that God was real. Not only was He real, but He loved me, and He loves us all. That also meant that if God was real, so was heaven, hell, and eternal life.
And if God loved and cared for us more than we could ever imagine, He also had a plan for each of our lives here on earth. We could walk with Him and embrace His plan, where we would find immense joy and peace. Or we could choose to insist on our own way and ignore His plan, which would lead us to a life of misery.
It is my hope these incredible miracles in Rita’s life will sink deeply into your heart, and you will listen for that still, small voice of the Lord. That voice that reminds us that choosing Jesus means choosing and experiencing love, a love beyond all human comprehension.
‘And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus.’ Phillipians 4:7
If you would like to hear Rita’s story in her own words, check out the link below.
If you are interested in hearing about more miracles and details in Rita’s life, I would recommend her book, Rita’s Story. You can purchase it on Amazon, Ebay, or other book sites.
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