In 1977, Ann Cannady received word from her doctor that she had cancer of the uterus. The news had a devastating impact on Ann and her husband, Gary, who had lost his first wife to the same type of cancer.
Gary didn't believe he could again watch someone he loved be destroyed by this terrible disease. "We spent the next eight weeks scared and praying," Ann said. "I kept begging God, saying 'Please, if I'm going to die, let me die quickly. I don't want Gary to have to face this again.'"
Not long afterward, Ann was scheduled for surgery, although she was given no hope it would stop the cancer. Three days before she was supposed to go to the hospital, there was a knock at the front door, Gary opened it to find an unusual stranger standing there.
The man was tall, even taller than 6--foot-5-inch Gary. "He was the blackest black I've ever seen," Ann related years later, the wonderment still in her voice. "And his eyes were a deep azure blue." The man introduced himself as Thomas and called Ann by name. He calmly told her not to worry, that her cancer had vanished.
Ann was stunned by the news and the fact that the stranger knew her name and that she had cancer. The man repeated his message that Ann no longer had cancer and quoted the Scripture found at Isaiah 53:5: "And with his stripes we are healed."
When Ann demanded to know who he was, the man simply answered: "I am Thomas. I am sent by God." With that, he held up his hand, palm facing her and leaned forward. "I'm telling you, the heat coming from that hand was incredible," Ann insisted. "Suddenly, I felt my legs go out from under me, and I fell to the floor.
"As I lay there, a strong white light, like one of those searchlights, traveled through my body. It started at my feet and worked its way up. "I knew something supernatural happened." Ann fainted. When she awoke, Gary was leaning over her and Thomas was gone. She made her way to the telephone, called her doctor and told him the surgery wouldn't be necessary because her cancer was cured.
The doctor insisted that she come in for another biopsy. When she awoke from the procedure, the doctor was standing at her bedside, a perplexed look on his face. "I don't understand what happened," he told her, "but your test came back clean ... you appear to be in the clear."
Later, the stunned doctor admitted that he had " ... witnessed a miracle."