Saturday, October 28, 2006

Angels

Are angels real? I believe that they are and that I had an experience with angels.

One night about ten years ago now, I was headed home from a retreat. It was late on a Sunday night, and I was very tired. Driving my Suzuki Samari I turned on the highway to go up to my home in the mountains, where I lived then. I navigated the curvy sections of the road fine, but grew more and more exhausted the closer I got to home. I must have fallen asleep on the straight stretch, but was dreaming I was still driving. And, I dreamed I was closer to home than I was.

The oncoming car lights woke me. I had not gone over the line, but was speeding towards a T-intersection. I barely saw the "stop ahead" sign when I slammed on my breaks. The Suzuki spun several times in the deserted intersection, then hit the gaurdrail on the drivers side. As the car flipped over in the air for a second time, I knew I was going to die. I thought. Well, this is it. My second thought was that I did not want this to be "it." I wanted to see my children grown, doing well and happy. And, I wanted to meet my grandchildren. Immediately, I had a vision of being surrounded by people. The verse from the Bible "Surrounded by so great a cloud of witneesses, that have gone on before." came to my mind.

I then got a vision that the car was going to come down right side up, wheel first. I heard a voice say "Throw up your arm, the glass is going to break." About that time the car hit, and I heard glass breaking. I threw up my arm.

Then, as the silence surrounded me I took full stock of my predicament. I KNEW the drivers side wouldn't open, so I reached over to the passenger side. Miracously it opened, and I remember climbing over the hump of the car and out the passenger side. I do not remember going up the hill. Just getting close to the top and being on the road.

I tried go flag down a car, but they didn't see me and did not stop. The second car that I did manage to flag down was a male nurse on his way to his job at a nursing home. He was helpful but didn't have a towel to wrap around my injured arm. The third car coming from the T-intersection "just happened to be" the head of the fire department/first responder team. Also the first person to respond to his call was a friend of mine who took care of my arm.

When the ambulance came, they kept asking me "What is your name? Where do you live? What is your phone number? Are you married? Do you have childfren? Was anyone in the car with you?" After answering these same questions I asked them why they kept asking them. It turned out that the steering wheel on my car was so badly bent they KNEW I must have hit it with my head or chest, and they couldn't find any chest injuries.

I told them "No, there is an angel in heaven that is badly bruised and battered right about now. He's saying, I'm never riding with her again."

The only injuries I recieved were a severely cut arm. It was cut in zig-zag layers to the nerve. It did not damage my nerve, by grace. After numerous stitches both inside and out, I was sent home to heal. I have scars, but I feel BLESSED to be alive. My car was so badly mangled that they didn't see how anyone could have survived.

I know how, Angels who are all around us, gaurding us constantly.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Ah, you wrote it down--and very curious it is, too. Interesting to have an account from somebody I know. And I wonder if it changed you, or your pictures...

Mary Sheehan Winn said...

wow. Glad you made it.