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Pope blesses the diseased eyes of Mansfield girl

Posted at 11:02 AM, Apr 06, 2016
and last updated 2016-04-06 11:22:25-04

Five-year-old Mansfield girl Elizabeth "Lizzy" Myers met Pope Francis today and checked him off the "visual bucket list" of things she wants to see before she goes blind.

"She was awestruck; she just stared at him," Lizzy's mother Christine said.
 
When the Pope met Lizzy, he blessed her eyes, her dad Steven said.
 
 

WATCH: Young girl slowly going blind gets her wish of meeting Pope Francis before losing her sight. The wish is part of her "visual bucket list."

Posted by Good Morning America on Wednesday, April 6, 2016

 
The family came to Rome hoping to collect some amazing memories for Lizzy to hold near once her world goes dark, but Steven believes they received more than that. He believes what Pope Francis did for Lizzy holds the possibility something miraculous.
 
"If there's any chance for a miracle, it would be there," Steven said.
 
Steven was so nervous before seeing Pope Francis that he had stomach pains. But when the pontiff came up to Lizzy, Steven said a calm came over him.
 
Pope Francis asked the Myers to pray for him and pledged to pray for them as well.
 
Seeing the person known to Lizzy as "the tall man with the white hair and the tall white hat," was pushed to the top of the bucket list when Turkish Airlines donated round-trip tickets to the Myers family after hearing of Lizzy's plight.
 
Steven and Christine Myers were the ones who created the bucket list of amazing things for Lizzy to see before a rare genetic condition slowly steals her sight.
 
Lizzy left Pope Francis with a gift to remember her by, a memento from one of her earlier bucket list journeys to the Warren Rupp Observatory in Bellville, where she saw the moon, stars and the rings of Saturn. Pope Francis now holds a meteor fallen from the heavens to remember a little girl from Ohio who is collecting visions.