Manila: A woman with lumber cancer in the southern Philippines claimed she was healed while crafting cigarette packs into rosary beads, a local paper said.
"All I wanted (to do at the start) was to clean up the environment," Elena Mabano, of Toril Kalambuan Association in Davao City, told the Inquirer, adding she never realised that she would be cured of her lumbar cancer after she concentrated on using components of "sin products" like cigarette packets to make rosary beads for a group of craftswomen she leads.
Her group is also known for using company brochures and plastic bags to make identification card holders, bags, necklaces and other fashion accessories.
Perfecting her craftsmanship was "a story of faith," said Mabano, referring to her miraculous healing after she decided to focus on making rosary beads and nothing else.
She started doing rosary beads not in search of a miracle but "in keeping with my being a Christian," Mabano explained when asked about her motive when she decided not to make bags, necklaces, ID holders and other products that her group members were fond of doing.
"I continued doing it (stringing beads) because I simply liked it…I continued to string the beads deep into the night without feeling any exhaustion at all (at a time when I was still suffering from lumbar cancer)," Mabano said.
"My husband used to say, ‘You have to take a rest, stop doing it,' but I continued. It helped keep my positive outlook in life (while I was sick of cancer)," she added.
The real bonus happened when her doctor found out that she was cured of her lumbar cancer, she said. No medical explanation was given.
In the past, she would give away rosaries to children during religious festivities every May in Davao City. That was also the reason why she was propelled to make rosaries out of cigarette packets, she confessed.
Her rosaries are expected to be popular because of her miraculous healing, observers said.
The group's products are proudly displayed at the outlets of "Magnegosyo ta, ‘Day (Let's do business, Inday)" at the Ecoland terminal and the Davao International Airport, sponsored by Mayor Sara Duterte's pro-woman project.
