Three Times He Healed Her
A story of miracles
There’s nothing quite like a miraculous healing to build your faith. Caroline Frances Holbrook was lucky enough to experience several in her lifetime—and the best part? She wrote three of them down for us to enjoy!!
Caroline’s first miraculous healing experience happened when she was just 13 years old. She was to be baptized that day, and she had a fever and chills. She decided to get baptized anyway— the moment she was confirmed, the sickness vanished! What a way to start your membership in the church!
Her second healing experience couldn’t have come at a better time.
Six months earlier, her husband, George, apparently decided that he could “live in the states just as well as here.” I’m not entirely sure what he meant by that, but what happened next was tragic.
Even though he stayed in the area, he abandoned a pregnant Caroline and their toddler daughter, Mary Ann, in Winters Quarters. He left them to travel the rest of the way to Utah without him and “without much means.”
She must have been heartbroken— and terrified. How would she be able to provide for her children? Thankfully, she had her mom and the other Saints with her to help strengthen her during what must have been a tumultuous time.
Caroline became in need of a blessing after her son, George was born. She was still in Winters Quarters and recently given birth. She was confined to a wagon, when a terrible storm rolled in. There was a fierce wind and no fire. She would leave her wagon and walk to the one house in camp for some coals so she could change her son without him freezing to death.
But he was still so cold, and she was deathly ill. She writes that she “sent to brother Brigham to pray for me” and after that blessing, she and her son quickly got better.
Caroline was also able to find love again. About 4 years later, she married a man named Joseph Holbrook.
Our final miraculous story happened when Caroline was 27 years old and horribly sick. Several of her friends told her that her time had come. But she refused to believe this. In faith, she asked for 7 Sisters to come wash & anoint her with oil to aid her healing.
These faithful women came to Caroline’s aid. A few of them remarked that her feet were as cold as if she had already died. However, from the very hour of the washing and anointing, she began to heal. She made a full recovery and would live another 56 years.
Side note: This was a common practice in the 1800s and even encouraged by Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. They maintained that it was by faith, and not “by virtue of the priesthood.” This practice went out of style, with more emphasis and instructions given on priesthood healing blessings, and is not practiced today. You can find out more here.
I’d like to leave you with Caroline’s testimony:
“I have had many trails and many troubles. I have tried to overcome as best I could… I want to bear my testimony to the truthfulness of this work. I know tht the things here in writing are true and that this is the church and kingdom of God, and I want to exhort my posterity to be true and faithful to Christ and to live their religion that they may be saved in the Celestial Kingdom of God, and I want not one of them to be lost. I have had hands laid on me many times and have been healed by the holy priesthood of God in Nauvoo, Winter’s Quarters, Salt Lake, and Bountiful. I sign my name to this that it may be read and thought upon by posterity.
Do you have any healing experiences you are willing to share? I’d love to hear them!
Thank you for sharing this! Caroline must have had amazing faith. My son was born with a kidney condition they said would last his whole life. 6 years later it was nearly undetectable, and I truly believe it's due to the priesthood blessings he received.