“At times I have dreamed of Our Lord”

27 October 1911. Mrs Annie O’Connor and her four children move from ‘St Elmo’ in Neptune St, Coogee, to the ironically named ‘Restwell’, just 150 metres away in Beach St. Again, a horse-drawn ambulance is called to move Eileen. The short journey over the rough roads again proves too much for Eileen, who arrives unconscious. She falls in and out of consciousness for the next four days. Her only sustenance is Holy Communion, brought each day by the priest-in-charge of the Coogee parochial distict, Rev. Father Edward McGrath msc. Eileen’s death appears imminent. Throughout her ordeal, Eileen receives visions of Our Lord and Our Lady. Our Lady tells Eileen that if he does not take her by Wednesday (All Saints Day, November 1) that she will recover. She later writes to Father McGrath, “I have at times dreamed of Our Lord as you may dream of anyone or anything, but what I am now going to write is different from dreams. To ask me to prove this is, so to speak, useless – it is not in my power. That I leave to you to do for yourself by the power of grace from Our Lady.” In between her visions of Our Lord and Our Lady, Eileen also sees Satan, who she believes is trying to drive a wedge between her love for God and her recently-deceased father. She asks Father McGrath, “Father, when I die, don’t bury me with my father, in order that the world may know that I love God better than I do my father.”