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The thatched cottage, almost identical to
White-o-Morn, the cottage in the film 'The Quiet Man'
Mountbellew is about 30 miles east of the port of Galway with the famous bay and beautiful sunsets that Bing Crosby used to sing about. Mary is the eldest child, having two brothers and a sister. Both brothers, Thomas and Michael live in Hindley, Lancashire, England and her sister Julia lives in Stretford, Manchester, England. Mary attended the local school, then technical college where she studied science and book keeping. At the age of nineteen, like many other young people from Ireland at that time, she left her native land on a huge liner sailing from Cobh, in Cork, to join her aunt, Kathleen who had herself emigrated to New York 20 years before.
Mary was in New York and Hartford, Connecticut from early 1955 to late 1960. She worked for a short time for the Bell Phone Company but for most of her time in the states she was in the nursing profession.
She returned to England in 1961 to stay in Westhoughton, Nr. Bolton, working for a short while as a nurse. Her parents lived on the outskirts of Westhoughton and it was in Westhoughton that she met her husband, Malcolm Vickers. After a considerable courtship Mary and Malcolm were to marry in 1970. The couple have no children but experience great pleasure in visiting their many nieces and nephews.
Until August 1983 Mary worked with Malcolm in his family's business (men’s and ladies apparel). For most of Her life Mary had been "through the mill" health wise. Born with a heart murmur, and 5 weeks premature, she also suffered from cancer of the leg, which was cured with Holy Water from Knock in Co. Mayo, Ireland, and the age of 11 years. Following an operation for appendicitis she was in a coma for 3 days. At the age of 14 pleurisy and silent pneumonia followed. Finally at the age of 40 she was to have a hysterectomy after the discovery of a tumour weighing 7lb, which was fortunately benign.
In 1983 Mary finally answered the messages she had increasingly received which asked her to travel the world and help people.
It was with this aim in mind that in August of that year Malcolm and Mary gave up their home ' business, and way of life to embark on a world wide healing mission. Carrying four suitcases, a Mountain of Faith, a Hill of Confidence and a Little Luck, Mary and her husband Malcolm embarked on a continuous world tour.
In 1988 they received a world record for continuous flying with B.A. In 1991 they achieved one million miles with B.A. 1999 arrived and they had achieved two million miles with B.A. Amazingly this is equal to 80 times around the earth or 4½ return journeys to the moon. The couple have lost count of the thousands of other internal flights and boat journeys undertaken over the last 20 years of travel.
They have also worn out 7 cameras, 32 suitcases and taken 5 very large mail sacks of photos. 15 large ledger books have been filled with thank you letters from successful healings on their mission of Faith.
In the last 8 years Mary and Malcolm have used a house in Westhoughton as a base/rest camp to wind down from their tours. This retreat house is next to the home of Malcolm's aunt, and is a great rest place where Mary can "re-charge" her spiritual, emotional and physical batteries.
Medugorje has been a very important part of Mary’s life since her first visit in 1982.
It was on the “Apparition Hill” that Mary was healed herself from Pleurisy, and pneumonia,
And now (in 2007) Mary has been fine ever since that visit.
Mary’s next trip to Medugorje will be the 31st time that she has been to this wonderful, and miraculous place; Mary has been quoted many times in the world’s press sources as saying “Medugorje is like a little portal to paradise, it is the nearest place to heaven on Earth”.
To end this short "About Mary" info page we leave the last word to Mary's husband Malcolm.
"I have often thought since we started our world tour, about why is it that Mary's T.V. and Radio Guest Shows are so popular and go down so well with viewing and listening audiences. In every country that we have visited I got my answer and it was revealed to me at 2:15 am on the morning of the 8th October 1995 in a N.B.C. driven stretch limo on our way from Burbank Studio's, Hollywood, to our hotel in San Diego. To go back to a time a few months earlier when Mary was in Seattle, in Washington. She was on CH 4 News, King 5 Seattle's Morning profile show, and also specifically featured on King 5, "Evening Magazine". This last show airs at 6:30 pm, and featured Mary performing an "exorcism" in a haunted hotel in the Washington area. This last show was seen by one of the researchers for N.B.C "The Other Side".
Mary's first show for N.B.C. was titled "Friendly Ghosts". This went on air on the 24th of July 1995. It was so successful that two more shows were requested. The next show was "Mothers that will do anything for their kids". The third, and best show was on 7th of October 1995. This was titled "Raised from the Dead". One of the film company's producers (John Taylor) told me after the show aired that Mary's segment was the best show in the history of The "Other Side". We had drinks in N.B.C.'s Green Room, late dinner in a Hollywood restaurant, and set off for the hotel about 12:30 am.
The studio guy who drove the limo had worked all his life for different T.V. studios in Hollywood. He had met all big stars of the silver screen, and was very interesting person to spend the 3 hours drive from N.B.C. Studio's to San Diego.
By 2:15 am Mary was sound asleep on the rear seat, and when an appropriate lull came in our conversation I asked his opinion as to why Mary receives the same response in every country we go to. He saw the shows that Mary did for N.B.C., and knew the response from all over the states about Mary were fantastic.
He thought about what I had asked him, and it was a full two minutes before he finally answered. He said only two words, "Bing Crosby". He did not elaborate. I was perplexed by this answer. Mary does not sing, and after thinking about this answer for the same two minutes I asked him to explain. He smiled and said these words. "Bing was a great friend, and he had a very unique voice, not just his singing voice, but also when he spoke. Your Mary has that same uniqueness in her voice.
People respond to emotion. Mary has a voice that conveys identifiable emotion to a person, or audience. It's the timbre, the melodious softness, combined with healing qualities. This is what captivates the listening audience”.
Not another word was said until we reached our hotel. 1 have no doubt he was reminiscing about the good old days with all big name stars that he was friendly with. I, meanwhile, was racking my brain, trying to memorise what he had just said.
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