Meet Jack “the farmer” O’Sullivan, 100 years old and still fit and well enough to climb Apparition Hill and Mt Krizevac during his recent pilgrimage to Medjugorje.
Jack first came to Medjugorje when he was 92 and has returned twice since then. He is a frequent visitor to holy shrines. Last month he journeyed to Lough Derg, closer to home but, nevertheless, one of the toughest pilgrimages to be made in Ireland.
Jack lives near Killarney in Ireland. He dispensed with “home help” when he was 88, saying he was “putting more into the pot than he was getting out of it!” So now Jack looks after himself, cooking and cleaning – his wife died 50 years ago. Jack’s nearest neighbour lives half a mile away but he uses the phone a lot to keep in touch with friends and neighbours who sometimes visit him.
Although Jack smoked until he was 75 and drank until he 95, it took him only four hours to get up and down Mt Krizevac on his latest visit “but that” he says, “was because they took me the back way down the mountain. They thought it would be easier for me, but I think it was really because it was easier for the others. If it is God’s will I should come here again, I shall be coming down the front path next time!”
The previous day Jack completed the climb up Apparition Hill also!
