St Carlo’s mother sends voicemail to 8-year-old Michigan altar server with leukemia

An 8-year-old Michigan boy diagnosed with leukemia recently received a message of hope from an unexpected source: the mother of Saint Carlo Acutis, another young man who suffered from leukemia.

“I cried,” Isaac Roznowski’s mother, Beth, said, according to Detroit Catholic, describing her reaction to hearing the voicemail in late August. 

Isaac, who is an altar server at a local parish, was diagnosed with leukemia July 18, and his family immediately began asking for prayers. Beth also said that Isaac has suffered seizures and a stroke, “but as God would have it, he has zero neurological ill effects from it,” according to Detroit Catholic. He also has a clot in his brain, but the family is hopeful that it will disappear over the next few months.

The prayer request eventually reached Antonia Salzano, the mother of St. Carlo Acutis. She recorded a message for the little boy.

Salzano assured Isaac of her prayers. She also encouraged him in his battle against his disease, speaking of advancements made since her son’s death.

“Isaac, I pray for you. Leukemia today is an illness that most of the time is cured completely,” she said, according to Detroit Catholic. “The kind that Carlo had in 2006, called M3, was a sentence of death at that time. But now they discovered the cure. So, most of the people are healed completely. So I’m sure that you will be able to defeat and do your battle, offered to the Immaculate Heart of Mary for the conversion of sinners, for your sanctification.”

She ended her voicemail by encouraging Isaac to pray and by reiterating her intention to pray for him.

“And you pray the rosary, go to Mass, not only on Sunday, if you can. And Jesus will help you, and I’m sure that I’m so optimistic, so God bless you, and I pray for you.”

Beth said that the Roznowskis already admired St. Carlo, but the message helped show Isaac how similar he is to the young saint. Isaac finished his first month of chemotherapy, and his cancer is currently in remission. However, living with Isaac’s leukemia is a daily battle.

“It’s something we are working on every day — how to carry the cross and how to help him heal and help him fight,” Beth said. “We are growing in our trust and faith as a family as we’re doing this together, because it’s not something that anyone can do without God.”