"Stand up," Mora recalls the image of the pope saying to her. "Don't be afraid."
Mora, her doctors and the Catholic Church say her aneurysm disappeared that day in a miracle that cleared the way for the late pope to be declared a saint on April 27 in a ceremony at the Vatican where Mora will be a guest of honour.
For Mora, the church-certified miracle was only the start of her metamorphosis from an ill and desperate woman into an adored symbol of faith for thousands of Costa Ricans and Catholics around the world.
Mora, 50, has been greeting a stream of local and international visitors in her modest home in a middle-class neighbourhood outside the Costa Rican capital, and accepts invitations to as many as four Masses a day. The faithful have given her so many letters to deliver to current pontiff Pope Francis that she has had to buy an extra suitcase.
Mora has suspended her late-in-life law studies and much of her work for her family security business to dedicate herself full-time to her role as a symbol of faith for many in Costa Rica.
"With all of this going on I appreciate having my own business, because if I had a boss, they would have already fired me for missing so much work," she joked.
She says she ignores skeptics who doubt she was really healed.
"Everyone can think what they want," she told The Associated Press during a visit to her home. "What I know is that I am healthy."
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