Before His Death...An Angel Called     Teresa P. Thompson   © Copyright 2003 by Teresa P. Thompson

There have been many stories throughout the centuries which depict Angels watching over people and their loved ones; however those stories are just that---"stories"---until it actually happens to you.

That's how I felt until I was 21 years old and about to face the loss of a very dear person in my life.

My parents were divorced when I was very young. Several years later my mother remarried and my brother and I were sent to live with our father and his parents.

Growing up, I became very close to my grandfather. I had always looked up to this kind gentle old man, and he was always an inspiration to me when everything seemed to go wrong in my life.

I used to wonder how I would handle it and when something happened to him. I knew that I would not be able to cope with losing him, and I know that God knew that also and sent me a special messenger just days before my grandfather's death.

I began going through the strangest thing with waking up in the middle of the night crying for no reason at all. I would go through the day in a daze. I felt as though I had lost something or someone and had no idea what it was or how to find it.

The day before my grandfather died I made the decision to see a counselor or a therapist. I knew that whatever I was going through was too huge for me to deal with alone. It had begun to drain every ounce of energy I had inside me.

During the two weeks that I had been experiencing these feelings of dread, my grandfather had been hospitalized for minor surgery on his prostrate gland. He'd had the surgery several times before and we felt there was no reason to worry about his recovery.

I awoke that morning with the dreaded burden that I had been carrying for days even stronger than ever. I was at the end of my ropes when I got the call telling me that my grandfather had come out of surgery with a blood clot on his lung. The family was needed at the hospital immediately.

I will never forget the feeling of relief when my aunt told me the words that I had always thought would destroy me.

"Grandpa is dead!" She screamed as I started to step off the elevator.

Instead of my stepping off the elevator, she walked inside and the doors closed behind her. I suddenly felt myself go to my knees as I froze into numbness. Being closed up inside the elevator seemed to make the world stop for a few seconds until the doors opened on the ground floor. I felt the terrible familiar feeling of dread gush through my body as I walked off the elevator.

Then suddenly the feeling that I had been carrying so heavily vanished almost as quickly and mysteriously as it had taken over me. It was as though a darkened cloud disappeared in front of my eyes.

"It's gone! That terrible feeling is gone!" I screamed through tears when I saw my brother standing at the end of the long hallway. "I don't feel that way any more!"

Here I was rejoicing at losing that terrible feeling that had seemed to be weighing me down for days at the very moment that I should have been terribly upset at losing this dear sweet person that meant so much to me.

It was later that afternoon that I realized what I had been going through all those days. Something or someone had been preparing me for the worst day of my life. God knew that I would not be able to accept my grandfather's death, so therefore he had been letting me experience the grief before it happened.

During the funeral I said my goodbyes to the most special man that I had ever known. I watched as everyone seemed to be devastated by his sudden death, and I was silently thankful that God had watched over me so closely.

There are times when I look back on those two weeks of torture and I thank God for what I went through. Sometimes I even feel that my grandfather played a hand in helping lift the burden of his death from my shoulders.

I will always attribute that experience to an Angel or a messenger of God. Since that time in my life, I haven't been the same person and through the years I have had several other experiences that make me truly believe there are "Angels Among Us."
 
 

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