My First Two Angels
Angel in the Air
I wish I could find the two flight attendants on that flight to Chicago from Las Vegas. I’m confident this was one of the strangest days in either of their lives. I would love to find them to tell them what really happened, even though they would have a difficult time swallowing it; it would explain everything.
My ex-fiancé called and talked me into running away from my emotionally abusive boyfriend and joining him as his date for his class reunion. When I moved beyond fear and agreed to the last-minute trip, he told me the ticket would be waiting at the airport. Until I was in my seat in the airplane, thinking I could run into him, my heart was racing. Once seated in the sixth row, I felt like I could finally breathe. I would deal with him when I returned.
When they finally closed the door to the aircraft, I looked toward the aisle as the last passengers boarded. When I saw the face of the last passenger as he walked in the door, I felt a sucker punch in my gut. I gasped loudly as if I’d been holding my breath. What just happened? All I knew at that moment was that man that just walked by; he was the man I was going to marry.
I asked the flight attendants if I could move my window seat to anywhere else on the plane. They said the flight was completely full, not an empty seat to be had. After we reached our cruising altitude, I asked my row-mates to let me out for a moment. As I walked all the way to the rear of the craft, I didn’t see anything else open. After my trip to the restroom and walking back up the aisle, the seat directly across the aisle from my future husband was open.
Not believing this could be, I went back to the back to see if anyone was in the restrooms that belonged to that seat. When no one came out, I went back to the flight attendants and pointed out the vacant seat.
In all of the years I’ve flown, I’ve never seen a look of terror in the eyes of flight attendants quite like I did this day. They were shuffling through their paperwork, looking at each other in disbelief as if they’d lost a passenger. When it was evident that there wasn’t someone wandering around the craft that belonged to that seat, they let me move. They never stopped scratching their heads.
He was sleeping when I finally settled in. The timing couldn’t be better as the flight attendants were just getting ready to push the beverage cart past our row. Instant, perfect plan. I punched him in the arm as they went by, and he woke up. We started to chat.
This man did turn out to be my husband, who would rescue me from my life in Las Vegas. Two years after we met, we married in a quick ceremony, and I moved to Ohio. It didn’t take long for me to realize wherever you go, there you are.
It would be such a gift to let these flight attendants know that they were part of my incredible journey. We all did our parts precisely as we had to. An angel manifested in that seat directly across from this man, holding that seat for me. Meeting this man was the next thing I had to do in this lifetime.
Angel in the Snow
Headed up to Crystal Mountain Resort with two of my friends, a skier, and a snowboarder, to enjoy a bluebird day. The snowboarder, who had much more time on the mountain than we had, she suggested we ski Northway, a place we’d never been. Even though we had to take off our skis, hike, and break a sweat, we agreed to check it out.
As we trudged our way up the ridge, we marveled at the scenery. From the top parts of Crystal Mountain, you can see Mount Rainier, other volcanoes, and many other ranges. It is breathtaking. We stopped to marvel and catch our breath.
As we moved along, Amy stopped us and believed she found where we should get our skis back on and head down. We put down our gear and cleaned the packed snow off our boots to experience this new part of the hill. A man appeared behind us as we were beating the packed snow off of our boots. There was no one anywhere behind us. We all looked at each other in shock. How did he get here, and when did he show up? We were so confused.
Very friendly, he asked us what was up. Amy told him we were getting ready to drop down the hill. His eyebrows shot to the top of his forehead as he gasped; apparently, right beyond the trees that were right before us was a massive band of steep cliffs. We were aimlessly about to follow Amy to the off-limits area. Talk about another gut punch. We would have been dropping off of the edge of the world in mere moments, one at a time. This guy showed up in the nick of time and saved our lives.
As we removed our skis and board again, we looked up to thank him, and he was nowhere to be seen. There were no other prints in the snow. He came out of nowhere.
The funny part about this story is – we were all there. We all three experienced this same thing. The thing is, it was never talked about again. None of us wanted to acknowledge that it actually happened. It’s like people who see ghosts or spacecraft. Or flight attendants who lost a passenger; it’s easier to erase it and forget – literally – that it ever happened.
I love the lens I can see through now. I know the angels in my life; the two who stopped by to keep me on track and alive, and the ones I walk beside.
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