Tue 1/15/08 3:19 AM

This is really a modern day miracle that was promised in a Patriarcal Blessing. Love all of you. Dad


Dear Editor,



I am attaching a story I wrote last night and hope to be of interest and printing in the Church News. Please let me know if it will be printed and I would appreciate a copy of it. We in Slovenia do not get Church News regularly if at all, and that only to the Mission Home. A least knowing in which issue it might appear would be helpful. I attach pictures of Marc Versic and his son Andreas, and of Veronica Versic on her 88th birthday on 10 December 2007.



With best wishes and kind regards,



Grandmother and Grandson meet after 30 odd years search for each other

After more than 30 years of searching for each other, Slovenian oldest member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 88 year old Veronika Versic and her grandson, Marc Versic, born and living in Australia, have found each other. This came about with the help of senior missionary to Slovenia, Sister Karyl Lee Rodabough, of Woods Cross, Utah, who with her sister in law, Sister ReNae Ashton served a full time mission in Slovenia two years ago, serving in establishing a Family History Center in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Sister Rodabough placed an enquiry on web pages www.ancestry.com.au in September 2006, and on 8 January, 2008, herself already back in her home town for 6 months, when Mark Versic, now known as Marc Versic of N.S.W. in Australia, contacted her by e-mail. He said that the description fits him and it is he that she was searching for. Sister Rodabough immediately phoned him up, they both ended weeping happy tears, telling each other of the search. This was a wish come true also for Marc, who thought he would probably never find his Grandmother.

His father Mirko Fric Versic was born to Veronika on 13 February 1942 and left Slovenia for Australia as a young man. He married an Australian girl, Lorraine. Marc was born to them on 30 December 1964 but when he was less than two years old, his father tragically died in a traffic accident on 8 November 1966. His mother had bad luck, after finding another partner, he too, tragically died in a similar accident to her first husband's, leaving her pregnant. During the next few years Marc's mother met another man, had a son and two daughters, moved house and stopped writing to her first mother-in-law, Veronika Versic. Veronika thus lost contact with her daughter in law Lorraine, as they could not communicate with each other due to different languages. So to Veronika, there remained only one question, will she ever get to find and see her grandson, Marc? Veronika did not know whether Lorraine got married again and whether her new husband adopted her grandson and had given him his family name, or did Marc keep his father's family name of Versic.

Veronika Versic became a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints on 2 September 2000, at the age of 81. Ever since then, she was faithfully going to the Frankfurt Temple, 12 hours' bus ride away, at least once a year. With help of other members she fervently researched her ancestors and did their saving ordinances in the Temple. Out of baptismal waters she came healthier than ever, she could now walk without a cane. Many blessings followed, but her still unfulfilled prayer was that her gandson Marc would be found. In 2007 she finally received her Patriarchal Blessing, language again being a barrier. She remembered enough German from the second world war when all Slovenes had to learn to speak German, so that during her visit to the Frankfurt Temple in 2007, she was able to receive her Patriarchal blessing by the Austrian Patriarch, Brother Soucek. In the blessing she was told among other that she would find her grandson. And the miracle happened on 8 January.

Veronika is 88 now, very frail, not very well at all, but we all hope and pray that she may be sustained until her Grandson Marc is able to visit her in Slovenia in a couple of weeks' time. He is working hard towards that goal. Veronika only knows he has been found, she saw a picture he had sent, of himself and of his almost 8 year old son Andreas, who Mark does not see more than twice a year either, because his ex-wife and her new partner live due to business in California for the past four years. But he talks to him on the phone at least twice weekly, and looks forward to seeing him again next summer. Veronika can not wait now to meet her grandson for the very first time and perhaps her great grandson in the future.

The desire was not one sided, though. Marc was also having a life long wish to find his Grandmother, the only Slovenian relative he knew he had. In August of 2007 Marc was actually in Slovenia, serching across the country for his Grandmother, even asking for her in the village where his father was born, to no avail. He left Slovenia thinking he would probably never find her.

But when people have faith, and do all they can themselves and leave the rest to the Lord, the Lord works his miracles. And this one is definitely a latter-day miracle.

Written by Dora Glassford Cimerman, serving as National Director for Public Affairs for Slovenia