A Milkwood Miracle Dorothy Kerin (1889-1963) In about 1900, aged eleven and following the death of her father William, a Ship Cargo Superintendent, Dorothy Kerin moved with her mother Emily from their home in Dawlish Road, Leyton to 204 Milkwood Road5. Dorothy’s is the story of ‘The Miracle of Herne Hill’. From childhood she suffered for many years from tubercular meningitis, then a serious and intractable illness. On 18 February 1912, having lost consciousness and been pronounced on the verge of death, she made an immediate and unexplained recovery. At 9.15 in the evening she suddenly sat up and said, “Do you not hear? I am well, I must get up and walk.” She then put on her dressing gown, went downstairs and helped herself to a meal of meat and pickles. Dorothy as a young woman, Sixteen people are said to have witnessed the courtesy the Dorothy Kerin Trust event. This recovery, it is said, was accompanied by visions and the voices of angels singing that were heard throughout the house. The following morning Dorothy was examined by a doctor. He could find nothing wrong with her. Later blood tests and X-rays confirmed the doctor’s findings – there were no traces of the lesions and other symptoms of her illness. As a result of extensive local and national press coverage, Dorothy became famous. She continued to hear voices and see visions; and she later noted that stigmata appeared. Media interest was so great that she had to leave Milkwood Road to avoid the crowds round her home. Dorothy Kerin
Dorothy gained a reputation as a healer and, in 1929, she opened her first Home of Healing, St
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204 Milkwood Road was immediately opposite 169 Milkwood Road and near what is now the Milkwood Community Park. The house was demolished in the 1960s; the site now forms part of the present industrial estate.
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