GUARDIAN ANGELS

I have always been a believer in guardian angels, and I sincerely believe that I have seen mine on at least two occasions. I believe the things that take place in our lives which take us away from near death situations are not luck. Once yes I will admit once could be luck, but many times I find it hard to believe. Several times I have moved away from my chosen course by others, even if most cases it was not a deliberate act. I have many times said that fate has placed me back on my chosen route towards my destiny, but now after a lot of soul searching I find that I might be wrong.

There have been occasions when I have been near or close to death, but walked away knowing that but for the grace of god I should have been dead. They are not the only times the guardian angels help us because they never leave our side. I was told once that a guardian angel cannot help us unless you tell them what you want out of life. So in 2006 I wrote a letter to mine and asked her if he/she would help me get my stories published. You are wondering how I wrote the letter or even how did I post it? I wrote it on ordinary paper and folded it twice and placed it under a timber joint in my shed which is locked 24/7. In 2008 when my first story was published I went out to the locked shed and looked for the letter. Did you expect it to be there, well I did, but the letter had disappeared.

 

Let’s go back 62 years ago when I was four and a half years old. Due to a traumatic experience I suffered a nervous breakdown which kept me away from school for over two years. Although I had an older brother I mostly played on my own, because he was at school five days a week. I had an imaginary friend, [or was he/she?]. He was called Djick, it was a strange name even for those days. He played hide and seek with me, walked about the large garden with me, fed the rabbits with me, and helped me play with my toys. There is a theory that when children are under stress or their well being is not fully loaded they have the ability to tap into the spirit world because their minds are still innocent. Whether Djick was a figment of my imagination, a spirit, or my guardian angel I have no idea. I am however glad that he was there to play with me to keep me company during the loneliest time in my life.

 

Now we will go forward a few years and I was twelve years old. While helping with the hay making on a farm, I fell thirty feet out of the barn. I landed flat on my back onto a concrete base, and apart from being winded I had no scars or broken bones. Why?

 

While in the Parachute regiment, I was in an Hastings aircraft that landed with three propellers stopped, and on touchdown the last one died. The cause was a massive fuel leak with the pilot flying the last few miles on fumes. Was that luck?

 

 

 

During the troubles in Northern Ireland I was nail bombed with the rest of the section. The radio on my back saved my life when it stopped over five, six inch nails striking my back. Was I fortunate?

My wife Lorna was going through a bad time with her heart problems, and I was trying to stay working as well as be with her. I have a fear of hospitals and I had just spent every evening for two weeks visiting her in hospital. I was getting stressed out with the constant battle of conquering my fear when visiting and work. She was out once more but the caring and worrying about her health still got me down at times.

 

I found myself walking along the straight road that travels out of Amberly towards Storington. There were no birds singing and the sky had grey/brown clouds had that pink haze you see after a rain storm. I looked down to my right where a child of about ten in aged clothes was holding my hand. She had old fashioned medium length blond hair with curls at the bottom. Her dress was a white pinafore dress with fancy lace in various places. She looked up and smiled at me but said nothing as she gripped my hand tight. I remembered the face and felt comfortable with her walking at my side. We must have walked the whole length of the straight without talking, while all the time her footsteps were matching mine. It was at the end of the straight we stopped and I looked down at her once more, and asked, “Who are you, and why are you here?”

Once again she looked up into my face while smiling and said, “You know who I am, Ian. We all need someone to show us the way.” Then before my eyes she smiled once more and disappeared. My eyes opened and I sat up in bed because the dream was so real, but it was the face of the child. It was a face I remembered from a long time ago, but I couldn’t place where from.

 

On November the thirteenth I was driving my car early in the morning. My mind and coordination was not functioning as it should have been. I was driving at no more than twenty miles per hour while passing the Gardeners Inn public house near my home. The junction of the lane I was on and the main Horsham road was only one hundred yards in front. My left hand was on the gear stick with my right hand as usual lightly holding the steering wheel.

A savvier pain crossed my forehead and behind my eyes as I passed the parked cars on my left. The left hand side of my body went limp as I found out later I was in the middle of a mini stroke. I know that I never turned that steering wheel to the left, but the car I was driving hit the last parked car before the junction. If I had carried on driving another seventy five yards I would have been at that main junction. At that time in the morning with the amount of traffic that was work related, I do believe that I would have been in an almost certain fatal accident. Yes; I truly believe in guardian angels.

 

Be well Ian