Be Still
By Leah M. Riegert
In 2018, my husband and I traveled to Rome, where we prayed together at the tomb of St. Peter, asking God for the blessing of a healthy child. The very next month, I became pregnant, a beautiful and immediate answer to our prayers.
At the time, I was a healthy 30-year-old with no known medical concerns, so nothing could have prepared me for what followed. Just six days after our daughter, Eloise, was born, I was diagnosed with postpartum heart failure. My heart was functioning at only 20%, and the doctors could not give me a clear prognosis. Forty pounds of fluid were drained from my heart and lungs. Fear and uncertainty surrounded me, but while in the ICU, I received Holy Communion. From that moment on, I felt that God took over.
Just one day after being discharged from the hospital from heart failure, I suffered a massive stroke. Paramedics rushed me to a local hospital and then I was airlifted to UC. During the helicopter flight, as I looked out over the Cincinnati skyline below, I prayed a simple prayer: that God would either take me peacefully or allow me to hold my newborn daughter one more time. In that moment, an indescribable peace washed over me. I knew that everything was going to be okay, no matter what that meant. For the first time, I fully surrendered to His will.
The road to recovery was long. After months of physical therapy and rest, I relearned how to use the right side of my body. Words began to come more easily. I returned to work as a clinical psychologist, something that once felt impossible.
If I’m honest, I wish that deep sense of peace and surrender had stayed with me. Instead, I found myself striving to get back to “normal,” fighting to reclaim the life I once had. Yet everywhere I turned, I kept encountering the same gentle reminder: “Be still.” Those words followed me so persistently that I eventually had them tattooed on my arm, a daily reminder that God is in control, and that my role is not to strive, but to trust.
Through every trial, God has been present. He put the right angels, my husband; family; doctors; nurses, in front of me. In the miracles, in the suffering, in the healing, and even in the waiting, He has never left me.