He Will Wipe Away Every Tear
Stories
Sharing Visions
Divine Revelations, Angels, And Holy Coincidences
In 1987, I came to Stowe, Vermont, for a visit with my mother, Maria Von Trapp. Her maid met us at the door with the news that mother was very ill and the ambulance was coming to take her to the hospital. Her friend, Emily Johnson, and I followed, and I had to sign a permission form for an exploratory surgery, as no other members of the family were available. My family was scattered in Europe, Arizona, Maryland, and elsewhere.
It was my mother's custom to bless us with a cross on the forehead. After a kiss, that was the last thing she did for me, as she never came out of the anesthesia. Her body was too deteriorated for them to operate. She was in a coma for three days.
The family gathered, friends came, we had mass said in the ICU bedroom with her, and we sang lots of our family songs for her. At her actual passing, only my younger sister, Lorli, and my niece, Elisabeth, were there. Werner, my older brother, his wife, Fr. Paul Taggart, and I were having dinner at the Trapp Lodge. Tina, the harpist, was playing "In the Garden," a favorite of my mother's, when the message came of her passing. It made Werner cry, for he felt it was a sign from mother that she was in the garden of Paradise. My request to God was that she would see somebody from heaven come to meet her, and she did, for we were told she opened her eyes and sat up in joyful greeting just before she died. It makes me cry just to write this, but oh, the comfort!
Many years later, our pastor in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Eddie Donovan, told me of a dream he had: He was walking through paradise and came on my mother, Maria, and her friend, Emily, sitting on a bench reading poetry. He asked if he could sit with them, but they told him the grass would do, as the bench was small. So he sat at their feet and listened. What a dream, again, so comforting! Three signs for me to be sure she was there, and someday I'll be there, too, God willing. And we'll get along better than we ever did on earth!
Editor's Note: Rosmarie von Trapp is the daughter of Captain George and Maria von Trapp whose story was told in the movie, The Sound of Music. Rosmarie was the first of three children born to the von Trapps after their marriage. The widowed captain already had seven children when Maria came to be the family governess. Rosmarie and her nine brothers and sisters made up the von Trapp Family singers who became famous after their triumphant flight from Nazi-controlled Austria in the 1930s.
It was my mother's custom to bless us with a cross on the forehead. After a kiss, that was the last thing she did for me, as she never came out of the anesthesia. Her body was too deteriorated for them to operate. She was in a coma for three days.
The family gathered, friends came, we had mass said in the ICU bedroom with her, and we sang lots of our family songs for her. At her actual passing, only my younger sister, Lorli, and my niece, Elisabeth, were there. Werner, my older brother, his wife, Fr. Paul Taggart, and I were having dinner at the Trapp Lodge. Tina, the harpist, was playing "In the Garden," a favorite of my mother's, when the message came of her passing. It made Werner cry, for he felt it was a sign from mother that she was in the garden of Paradise. My request to God was that she would see somebody from heaven come to meet her, and she did, for we were told she opened her eyes and sat up in joyful greeting just before she died. It makes me cry just to write this, but oh, the comfort!
Many years later, our pastor in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, Eddie Donovan, told me of a dream he had: He was walking through paradise and came on my mother, Maria, and her friend, Emily, sitting on a bench reading poetry. He asked if he could sit with them, but they told him the grass would do, as the bench was small. So he sat at their feet and listened. What a dream, again, so comforting! Three signs for me to be sure she was there, and someday I'll be there, too, God willing. And we'll get along better than we ever did on earth!
Editor's Note: Rosmarie von Trapp is the daughter of Captain George and Maria von Trapp whose story was told in the movie, The Sound of Music. Rosmarie was the first of three children born to the von Trapps after their marriage. The widowed captain already had seven children when Maria came to be the family governess. Rosmarie and her nine brothers and sisters made up the von Trapp Family singers who became famous after their triumphant flight from Nazi-controlled Austria in the 1930s.
