Most of the time angels are characters in a story, or beautifully depicted light beings in art or movies...but imagine coming across one in real life! This is something that happened to me when I was about 13 years old, and to this day I can remember every detail of the experience. Remember when I talked about "hindsight being 20/20?" Well this story is a perfect example of that, and you'll see what I mean as I go along.
As a little girl, I was always fascinated by the supernatural. I loved to hear stories of weird unexplainable things that happened to my mom, and my Grandma Austin (my dad's mom). I loved to hear them over and over again so I wouldn't ever forget them, and always wished something like that would happen to me. I have always had this unshakable feeling that I am being taken care of, and that everything will be okay, no matter the situation. And you know what? So far that's always been true. I have an eternal optimism that is always burning deep within me, even in the darkest hour. Its little events like this that have validated that my deep spiritual connection.
I was about 13 years old, and I was spending the night at my Grandma and Grandpa Flesch's house (my mom's parents.) There was nothing particularly different about this night's stay, I had been spending the night there since I was a baby. I especially loved when I got to stay there by myself, because as anyone with siblings knows, its nice to have a little attention just to your self. We had our own special bedroom to sleep in when we stayed at their house, and we always stayed up really late watching tv or movies. This room, coincidentally, was decorated in angels. My grandma loved little angels and cherubs and this was her special room to keep them in.
That night, grandma tucked me in and kissed me good night. Her bedding always smelled soooo good. The smell alone could lull you to sleep, like they had been washed in fresh ocean water and love and dried in the sun. This night, however, I did not fall right asleep. I lay there awake in the dark, and kept my eyes closed, trying to talk myself into falling asleep. Then I heard my grandma come back in the room and felt her sit down on the bed beside me. "She must've forgot to tell me something," I thought to myself. I opened my eyes. That was not my grandma sitting there on the bed.
Sitting beside me was a beautiful woman that resembled my mother, but I knew it was not my mom. She was smiling lovingly at me with her hands folded neatly in her lap. She wore a pale green house dress, like someone in the 1940's or 1950's would wear. Her presence was very loving, and it appeared that she was just there watching me. Did this register with my 13 year old brain? No. Nothing about this visit was scary, yet it startled me so much that I closed my eyes quickly and opened them and she was gone.
There was no going back to sleep at this point. I was so jumpy, that I remember going downstairs and turning on the T.V., The Wiz was on, and I watched that until I fell asleep on the couch. I remember explaining to grandma what happened the next morning. I don't think she believed that I was awake, she thought I had fallen asleep and had a dream about that happening. But I knew I was wide awake when it happened. I started looking at pictures, and found a picture that looked exactly like the woman I had seen on my bed the night before. It was my grandpa's mother, a young version of her. Her name was Bertha Flesch. And in that instant I realized, she was my angel. She was looking after me, even though we had never met in life.
As time passed, I would feel her presence at times, especially if I was having a hard time or sick. I never did see her again in front of me. It wasn't until last year that I put something very interesting together. I was talking to my grandpa about his mother right after I found out that I had appendix cancer and would need surgery. He told me that she was diagnosed with stomach cancer, but her appendix looked weird, like it had burst at some point, which is kind of what mine looked like. With the rare type of appendiceal cancer that I had, its usually too late when they find it, because it spreads all over the bowel, which is what hers looked like. A lot of times, that type of cancer is missed by doctors, or they aren't sure what it is, and that's in today's medical world. We're thinking, that perhaps she had the same appendiceal cancer that I had, but they weren't able to diagnose that at that time. He also said she probably had endometriosis as well because she endured a lot of the same type of pain that I had. She would come home from work and have to go lay down because of the pain.
I had no idea about any of these things until last year. Could it be that she knew of the path that was chosen for me and was there as a guide, watching out for me, and putting me in the hands of the people who could help? Was she there secretly holding my hand and helping breathe my way through the pain? I know she was. I am so lucky to have gotten a small glimpse of this sweet angel in action which has helped me set the tone for my spiritual quest and purpose on this Earth. Boom! Miracle.
