Audrey Marie Santo, often referred to as Little Audrey by pilgrims to her home, was an American young woman from Worcester, Massachusetts through whom miracles were said to have happened during her lifetime. Every month, thousands of people come, from all over the world, to this ordinary suburban house in the middle of America, in search of a miracle.
At the age of 3 Audrey Marie Santo fell into the family swimming pool and, following doctors botched attempts to revive her, fell into a coma-like state referred to as ‘akinetic mutism’. Audrey had been brought up a Catholic and in her bedroom there are numerous icons and statues of the saints and the Virgin. On her return from hospital the statues began to weep and the stigmata appeared on her body.
From inside the crying room, Audrey Marie Santo looks out. Her glistening eyes appear to watch as each hopeful visitor reaches the window and gazes in, hands on the glass. Some leave roses. One leaves a small stuffed teddy bear. Others turn away and weep. A police woman stands beside the window. The ecstatic pilgrims want so much to linger but they must not. They have been told: keep moving, please. There are thousands more outside, waiting in the hot sun, many of them too sick to stand. But they inch forward in line.
