At a gathering I recently attended, the leader shared stories of angel encounters. Only parenthetically on this blog (here) have I noted my own profound angel encounter, one I’ve intended for years to share the full story. Since it was twenty years ago, it’s about time I do! On a day when many are celebrating ghosts, goblins, and devils, why not also celebrate some angels? Four to be exact, seen by my little children, 4 and 1 ½.
Just four hours after my release from the Emergency Room in June, 2005 my children saw these angels. This was about a month into my 3 ½ month “Summer in the Twilight Zone,” with its mix of glories and terrors. I’ve described some of this time in the same post referenced above (here) and some more detail in my series “Translation Overload”, especially in parts 2 and 3. Briefly, the twilight zone commenced with memories of my toddler and preschool years to be later affirmed by my mother; then came visions, synchronicities, a splash of color like an aurora where it didn’t belong in Venezuela, and the launch of my whispers of mystery. So too did the other side of its double-edged sword arrive: nightmares, vomiting, labor pains and horrors later confirmed by Hurricane Katrina, and this migraine so rare and so piercing it threw me into the ER.
We had travel plans on that day of the ER visit. We were about to head west to Seattle to spend the night, along with my parents, at my uncle’s house. The night after we were to be in Bellingham, on our side of the Canadian border, and then the next day we were to embark on our joint family vacation: the majestic Canadian train trip in sleeper cars from Vancouver, BC to Jasper, AL. Since my parents lived in California and my dad’s brother lived near the Sea-Tac airport, Mom and Dad were flying up to Seattle that day. My family was living two hours east, so we could drive. In fact, we could drive two cars, then lend one to Mom and Dad for the trip north.
But now there was a wrench. How was I to drive? The migraine came on early in the morning. Unaccustomed to such a condition, I had no medicine for it. Just Tylenol, which was not working one bit. My husband drove us to the ER, where I was admitted around 9 am, was treated, rested, began to feel better, given medicine to carry me through, and was discharged around noon. The doctor said to delay travel for at least 3-4 hours and then head out as long as I was feeling better.
By 4:00, I was feeling better, though nervous. Americans who live in the eastern two-thirds of the country present breathless awe on their faces when they see our mountains out west. We “Left Coasters,” as my mom’s brother likes to call us, sometimes take our mountains for granted, but they are truly majestic and if I ever consider living anywhere else, I shake my head with a quick No. Who could leave these mountains? But nothing glorious is free. Mountains make for a daunting drive with their twists, turns, inclines and deep descents, alongside many trucks and cars driving too fast.
Thankfully, we would have daylight. We had timed our Canadian adventure to coincide with the summer solstice, to arrive in the especially northern city of Jasper, AL, along at the solstice to enjoy daylight till 11 pm. Still in central Washington, we, of course, would see dark sooner, but not before arriving in Seattle. We would have daylight and my husband would lead, driving slowly. I could do this. Otherwise, my parents would need to rent a car, cross the border with it, and pay an exorbitant fee to take it into Canada. They were paying for this vacation for all six of us, so I certainly wanted to lend them my car.
Our children’s car seats were already set up in my car. Sensing I would feel more at ease with their companionship, we chose to keep them with me. We live in the valley, just five minutes from the highway and fifteen minutes from the first incline into the Cascade mountains. We had barely merged onto the highway when I discovered just how true my intuition to keep the children with me would be.
“Look, Mommy! Four angels!” exclaimed my four year-old son in delight. He pointed up excitedly about 12 feet above our car into what I saw as a beautiful clear blue sky. “One above Daddy’s car and three are above our car!” Then he pointed again to a place about a dozen feet above my husband’s car and then to the same place above our car. As he spoke, his baby sister, only 20 months old, was giggling, clapping, pointing to the exact same spots, vigorously nodding, clapping again, bouncing up and down, giggling more, and nodding again in delighted agreement.
Angels escorting us? I was stunned. Could this be?
I asked my son what they looked like, and he said, “They’re very tall!” He peered more and tried to describe them. He said they had purple skirts, yellow tops, and long hair, “yellow-orange, kinda’ like yours” (strawberry blond), but longer, “very long.” Baby sister happily nodded, bounced up and down, and clapped again, in her toddler way of saying, “Yes! Yes! What he says!”
Through every tight turn, down every steep decline, by every truck we passed, in every wolf pack of vehicles around us and tailing us, I drove in calm awe. Oh how I wished I could have seen the angels too. But I was fully confident of their presence. We made it safely to Seattle and then to Vancouver, and my migraine never returned.
Throughout my Summer in the Twilight Zone, the angels were whispering to me – a new experience that has remained with me ever since. Through my two little children, the angels confirmed to me they are real and they are truly watching over us.
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by Karina. Use only with permission
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