Brother James
Beloved of All
How do you know that someone else wasn't actually praying to Jesus about that for you because I have experienced being healed by Jesus stripes more than once.Yes, the Virgin Mary is the mother of Jesus. She has helped me once, it was miracle. My legs were paralyzed. Everyone knows that evil spirits are afraid of her.
Mary is sleeping until the rapture according to scripture so I highly doubt she is actually listening to anyone as she has never been described as having the power of Jesus. We all can suffer for a lack of knowledge. Mary is highly favored by both God and man but she is not supposed to be prayed to. We are supposed to go to the Father through Jesus the Son or simply to Jesus as in John 6 and John 14 if you would like to see for yourself.