Angel In the Library

When I first began working with the Angelics I was an Agnostic, having left my strict Catholic upbringing in the dust the minute I turned 18. The Angelics thought this wouldn't do so decided they'd do what was necessary to turn me around.

My niece, Laura was about to make her First Communion and I wanted to give her a gift no one else would give her. Laura had been born on Thanksgiving Day so I decided to write about a little angel sent to remind us about everything we had to be thankful for. The surprise ending would be that Laura would be that Tiniest Angel.

For three days I sat at my computer trying to come up with a story. Talk about writer's block!

I'd never paid much attention to angels. I knew nothing about them apart from the fact they made nice Christmas tree toppers. So I decided to go to the library that weekend and pick up some books on angels. There was a specific style of illustration I was looking for as well, that I could illustrate Laura's story with.

I had a lot of errands to run the following Saturday so rushed into the library to pick up a couple of angel books. On my way to the shelf they were housed on, I passed an elderly gray haired woman dressed in a very brightly flowered print dress. As I passed her I was nearly overcome by the smell of her perfume. It smelled like she'd bathed in the stuff, that smelled like a flower garden.

"Good morning dear," she smiled as I passed her. "Morning," I smiled, not wanting to be rude. I just wanted to get in, grab my angel books and get out.

"The books on angels are up and to your right dear," she said. I was so focused it never occurred to me to ask how she knew I was looking for books about angels.

"You have to be careful which books about angels you choose," she continued. "So much is written about them that isn't true."

I really didn't want to get into a conversation with this woman but I didn't want to be rude to her either. "Oh, you know a lot about angels?" I asked.

She chuckled and replied "Well I certainly hope so dear, I AM an angel!"

Oh just ducky! I thought to myself. I'm in a hurry and get roped into a conversation with some nut case who thinks she's an angel! Be kind Pat...maybe she has Alzheimers or something...".

At that point one of the librarians wheeled a cart of books she was reshelving next to us.

"I see," I said to the angel, smilng. I focused on the books in front of me, wanting to put an end to this ridiculous conversation.

"Well, I must be going, dear," the angel smiled. "The book of illustrations you're looking for for Laura's story is titled (she gave me a title) and is in the children's section. And by the way, Patricia...I do not have Alzheimers."

THUD!

The book in my hand hits the floor. How did she know Laura's name and that I was writing a story for her? How did she know I was looking for a book with a specific illustration in it? How did she know MY name? How did she know I'd thought to myself she may have had Alzheimers?!!

Our library at that time was roughly the size of a shoebox. You could see the entire library from the librarians desk. I rushed up to the desk and looked around. Angel Lady was nowhere in sight. It would've been impossible for her to have gotten out of the library and outside in those few seconds. I rushed to the lobby and outside. She was nowhere to be seen.

But that was impossible! I rushed back to the librarian's desk.

"Where did that woman go that was just here?" I asked.

The two librarians exchanged puzzled glances. "What lady" they asked.

"The one that was just here! Gray hair, real bright flowered dress! You were standing right next to us reshelving books!" I was nearly shouting.

Now they exchanged a glance that clearly indicated they thought I was the nut case with Alzheimers.

"Ma'am, you've been the only person in the library all morning! I wondered who you were talking to!"

O...M...G. I knew I hadn't hallucinated the whole thing. Then I remembered what she'd said about the book of illustrations I was looking for. I ran to the children's section. Sure enough, there it was! And it had exactly the style of illustrations I was looking for. Proof I hadn't imagined anything. WHAT IN THE HELL WAS GOING ON?!!

Normally I'm the one to remain cool, calm and collected in a crisis. I seldom cry. I was a crying mess all the way home. My husband, John took one look at me and alarmed, gasped "PAT! WHAT'S WRONG?"

I told him what had happened in the library.

"Well," he shrugged nonchalantly "I guess you saw an angel."

"JOHN!" I yelled. "ANGELS DO NOT JUST APPEAR IN A LIBRARY IN THE BOONIES!"

"Apparently this one did," he insisted.

It took me until that evening to gather my wits about me again. I sat down to attempt to write Laura's story, The Tiniest Angel again. This time the story flowed out of me, as though someone were dictating it to me in my head. I even finished illustrating it that same night and put it in the mail to Laura the next morning.

My brother was having a party of about 30 people at their house to celebrate Laura's First Communion. He phoned me in tears.

"We just read your story," he said. "There's not a dry eye in the house."

The Tiniest Angel was read to Laura's class, then the entire school. From there it traveled to Puerto Rico and was read in schools there.

Then my brother's parish priest phoned me, urging me to get The Tiniest Angel published.

I didn't feel right doing that knowing I hadn't written The Tiniest Angel - my angel in the library had and deserved the credit.

Were the Angelics done with me by that point? Not by a long shot!

The following night I fell asleep on my living room sofa while watching TV. I had a very vidiv dream in which two huge angels appeared with their wings wrapped around something, hiding it. They slowly opened their wings to reveal...Laura. "TEACH HER!" they commanded. I sat bolt upright on the sofa this command was so powerful

I glanced at the TV. The multi colored vertical bar pattern that signaled a station was off the air was on the screen. Suddenly that pattern disappeared and the two huge angels that had just appeared in my dream appeared on the screen! The screen slowly began to scroll down...until Mary appeared. Then the screen returned to the off the air pattern.

Oh lordie...now what was going on?

I stayed up every night that week, watching to see when that station went off the air even though I knew it went off the air at midnight. The angels never appeared on the screen again.

The morning after that I'd be awakened by gentle voices speaking to me, offering me encouragement. Finally I asked "Who IS this?"

"Mikael"

"Gabriel"

"Raphael"

Ducky. Now I had Christmas tree toppers as my alarm clock. My life had become a never ending Angelic episode of the Twilight Zone.

Then both psychic friends who knew me personally and many who didn't know me at all began reporting to me "I see 12 huge angels surrounding your house, protecting you." "I see Archangel Michael standing behind you dressed in full armor!"

I nearly lost it the night my fellow cops all began telling me "Pat, your whole body is glowing white light!"

We were always pulling pranks on one another and I assumed this was just another of their pranks. They insisted it wasn't and that I should go look in a mirror to see it for myself - so I did.

I was lit up like a flippen' Christmas tree! There was an aura of bright white light radiating outward all the way around my body! None of us could come up with any logical explanation for this and we never did.