Audrey Toguchi of 'Aiea is already planning her trip to Rome.

Elated to hear that Pope Benedict XVI signed off on the miracle that ensures the Blessed Damien de Veuster will become Saint Damien, she plans to be there when it happens.

It was Toguchi who was diagnosed with terminal liposarcoma, an illness that disappeared after she prayed at Damien's grave in Kalaupapa.

She said the news of Damien's pending sainthood means just as much outside her church circles as it does inside: Her surgeon, Dr. Walter Chang, is not Catholic but he told her he's thrilled it occurred in his lifetime.

"He's more and more excited," she said. "Now he doesn't have to fly to Rome by plane — he has enough energy to fly there on his own."

Her financial adviser, another non-Catholic, told her he was so inspired by her story he was dancing around.

She recalled how the nuns and priests of her formative years taught her that when something bad happens, she should put it in the hands of God, which then begins the healing.

"The body starts healing itself. Guess who's healing it?" she asked.

Toguchi had health scares in the past, such as a kidney problem in 1979, but the news from Chang sounded so dire. "My heart was filled with (thoughts of husband) Yuki and my sons."

The former high school teacher will bring her husband, Yukio, and one of her sons to Rome for the celebration.

It will be her third trip to Rome, and she's been prepping. She rented some documentary videos about the sainthood process and was so enthralled that she bought them.

She plans to join a tour group with the diocese.

"We're too old to be traveling by ourselves — and I don't know Italian," she said with a laugh. "The safest thing for me is to join Father Chris Keahi (the local provincial for the order of Sacred Hearts) and the gang. Will it be more fun? You bet."