I arrived home on Saturday at 3 a.m. just in time to once again see the nightly raccoon gang digging in my garbage.

Did that sleep thing again for a few hours and then headed out to do an afternoon show, this time in Manhattan (at least the gigs are getting closer to home.). This gig was at the Joe Franklin Comedy Club for an all women show called, Momedy..., which was part of Mamapalooza, an international performance event featuring all female performers. The women were talented; the audience was great, and again lots of hugs and kisses.

So far it was three for three on great shows. Before heading out, I took a picture with Joe himself, the man who gave me, and thousands of other performers, our first shot on TV.

I got home at a decent hour, and checked my emails. I was still in my fast mode track because now I had to get ready for a hot date... suddenly I was stopped dead in my tracks.

There was an email from my friend, Dawn.

Dawn is one of my wacky Italian paisans...she sees angelic symbols, rides a unicycle and gives me things on a whim. She's one of the most good-hearted people you‘d want to meet. She, as well as my other friends, has been keeping in constant touch with me since my mom has been in the hospital. She knew I was going to spend mother's day there with my mom.

You see, no one ever expects or wants, that their mother's day will be held in a hospital room...but that was the case since my mom, Rose...went into Jamaica Hospital on March 26th, 2007, the same day my son, Spencer went into the emergency room in Putnam for a high fever that lead to pericarditis (an inflammation of the heart.) My son, thank God was out in three days and is now fully recovered

My mom went into the emergency room for what she thought was food poisoning. It ended up being an incarcerated hernia...a life-threading situation – to put it bluntly, if she had not gotten operated on within a few hours she would have been dead.

My mom, though, is a tough ole gal, and seven hours later with three feet of blackened gangrened intestines removed via the skilled hands of Surgeon Rubin (a gorgeous TV looking doctor that all the nurses swoon over) she was saved.

Needless to say, those seven hours were pretty intense. I used every mental technique I knew from praying, white light healing, visualization, lighting candles etc. to help her through it. Heck, my son even threw in some prayers to the Greek God, Zeus. As he put it, "I wanted to get as many deities as I could involved". Well it worked; she survived the massive surgery and was out of intensive care in a few days.

The only problem was we should have kept on praying because we thought she'd be home in two weeks. Unfortunately, she was attacked by two infections. One in the wound, which required her staples to be opened up and a vacuum like machine to be inserted into her stomach wound to suck out the infection.

And two, an infection know as C-Diff, which is caused by too much antibiotics! The very antibiotics that were helping the wound infection killed off the good bacteria in her intestines and left the bad bacteria to run amok.

After a few weeks, and 28 pounds lost, the wound infection cleared up, but those bad C-Diff bacteria were still partying. The problem was...C-Diff could be life threatening causing dehydration and a host of side complications, so again we were a tad nervous.

Dawn knew all of this when she sent the following email,
"I'm going to make you an offer that's been in my head since your mom got sick, I know it's the right thing to do now and I know I can trust you with this. About 10 years ago a friend of mine was chosen to pick Mother Theresa up in a limo when she visited NY. Anyway this friend of mine brought some rosary beads with her. As they sat in the back of the limo being driven to their destination, my friend asked Mother Theresa if she would bless the beads, and she did. My friend gave me a pair of the beads and I have them hanging next to my bed. Okay this is what you need to do: bring the beads with you on your next visit to your mom have her pray with the beads and bring them back. Next to my children they are my most prized possession, but don't let that frighten you. I'm certain this is how it's supposed to go down. We can do our usual Curves exchange. Let me know what's good for you".

I looked at my watch. I had two hours to make it before Curves closed and I could still make it to my date on time.

I drove over to Curves (which serves as Dawn's and mine PO exchange box) got the blessed rosary from the owner Theresa, rushed back home, stuck the rosary beads on my statue of Mother Mary for safe keeping...got dolled up and went on my date.

Sunday morning, Mother's day came. My first order of business was to climb to the top of a nearby mountain to get a view of Lake Oscawana. Ironically from the hilltop you could see the house on the lake that was used to shoot the last Sopranos episodes...okay so that's not so religious, but it is cool and besides, I wanted to start my day at the top...literally, so I dragged my boyfriend along for the ride.

Upon our decent, my son gave me his gifts. I was going to go kayaking with him but thought that might be jamming too much into a day...so instead we got in the car and headed down to see my mom in the hospital.

Armed with flowers, cards, a leg of chicken and a blessed rosary we went to her room.

My mom loved the flowers, ate the leg of chicken, and then before any other visitors came we all did the rosary together.

It was a very special moment. I said to mom, "Listen outside of the Pope blessing these beads, this is the next highest source." My mom smiled.

Now here's the thing...we all went to say the rosary and realized we didn't remember how to do it. To be honest, I don't think I've ever done one...but I figured if you are gonna start, this sure is a good way. Spencer remembered some of it from his religion classes, and mom vaguely remembered some. I said," Lets just do our best. I think God, Mother Mary and Mother Theresa will know what we mean."

My mom held the rosary, I held her foot, and Spencer held her arm. We felt as long as we were all touching it would work with all our energies...of course someone from the outside would think we were playing a game of Twister.

It was a moment we'll never forget. There was something magical in the air. At the end of the prayers my mom kissed the rosary. I carefully placed it back in the bag.

Almost on cue, our "uncle" Selo stopped by with a huge bouquet of flowers for my mom. (Selo is this Turkish guy that used to work for my dad 20 years ago in construction. My dad asked if he could stay on our couch for a night till he found a place to live...six months later Selo was still on our couch and practically adopted by our family.)

My sister and niece both had strep so they couldn't come to visit my mom but sent gifts to her.

We talked, joked and painted by mom's nails. After a few hours we left.

The next morning before returning the beads, I said the rosary again...this time adding my own prayers..."You know Mother Mary...I am praying specifically that my mom's infections are totally healed quickly and that she comes home soon. Oh yeah, and also praying that Spencer heart is fine...and that my sister's knee is better...okay and that any of my friends who are sick or who are having trouble get help with their problems. I don't mean to be asking for so much, but I figure these are powerful beads, and well you never know unless you ask...and if I mess up on the rosary I'm sorry, but you know my intentions are good."

Then I kissed the beads, put them back in the bag and returned them via Curves exchange.

The next day my mom called me. "Guess what! Dr. Rubin looked at the wound and said it is healing wonderfully, and I ate food today and didn't throw up or take a crap five times in a row."

"Gezz mom, who would believe it if I said, my mom and I get on the phone and talk about crap...literally!"

We laughed, but the bottom line was our prayers were working.
It is now five days into the prayers...and each day she is getting noticeably better. I know because she is now complaining about the taste of the hospital food and dreaming of shrimps and steak.

We both agreed it had to be the blessed rosary. After all, in the entire 49 days, the infection was not getting better. The only thing that changed was our prayer on the rosary on mother's day. But after all, that seems fitting. A mother gave me the beads to give to my mother. The beads were blessed by Mother Theresa, and we said the Hail Mary (Mother Mary) prayers on the rosary...if that's not woman power on the one day that celebrates woman...then I don't know what is.

All I can say is I do believe we are seeing a miracle and that is the ultimate Mothers Day of all. Thank you, thank you, thank you.