I'm not religious at all so never gave any more thought to angels than I did to ET's and UFO's. I figured angels made nice Christmas tree toppers but that was the extent of my knowledge about angels.
My niece, Laura was Catholic and making her First Communion. I wanted to give her a gift no one else would give her. Laura was born on Thanksgiving Day. I don't know what (or WHO) possessed me to decide to write a story about angels, the surprise ending to the story being Laura was a Thanksgiving angel sent to remind everyone what they had to be thankful for. The story was called The Tiniest Angel.
​
I sat at my computer for 3 days with a terminal case of writer's block. I figured maybe I'd better get some books on angels so I had a clue what I wanted to write about. That weekend I stopped in the library was a busy one for me, I had a bunch of errands to run that day.
​
I went to the card catalog and looked up where books about angels were housed. As I headed to the stack I passed an older woman in a very brightly colored floral print dress. It smelled like she'd bathed in perfume that smelled like a garden. She was standing not 3 feet from me.
​
"Good morning, dear," she smiled.
"Morning," I replied, not wanting to be rude. The truth was, I was in a hurry so just wanted to grab some angel books, get out of the library and on with my errands. I focused on the library shelf.
​
"The books about angels are up and to your right, dear," the woman said.
​
When I get "in the zone" I get very focused on the task at hand so the fact this woman somehow knew I was looking for angel books went right over my head. I was also looking for an angel book with a specific style of illustrations in it.
​
At that moment one of the librarians rolled a cart of books up to be reshelved and stood right next to me putting the books back in their proper places.
"You have to be careful which books about angels you read, dear," the woman continued. "So much is written about them that isn't true."
"Oh, you know a lot about angels?" I asked, again not wanting to be rude to the woman.
She chuckled. "Well I certainly HOPE so, dear! I AM an angel."
Oh just ducky! I'm thinking 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 Alzheimer's or something...
​
I just smiled at her and focused very intently on the book in my hands, not wanting this conversation to go any further.
"Well, I must be going now," she said. "The angel book of illustrations you're looking for, for Laura's story is in the children's section and is titled [I forget the name of the title now]. And by the way, I do NOT have Alzheimer's, Patricia."
The book in my hands hits the floor. How did she know Laura's name, my name, that I was writing a story for Laura, that I was looking for an angel book with a specific kind of illustration?!!
How the hell had she known I'd just thought to MYSELF that she might have Alzheimers?!!
​
Mind you, at that time our library was the size of a shoebox. You could see the entire library from the librarians desk.
​
I was a cop. This woman wasn't getting away without her telling me how she knew everything she did!
In the 3 seconds it took me to pick up the book I'd dropped, she was gone.
​
I raced to the librarian's desk. She was nowhere in the library. I knew she couldn't possibly have gotten out of the lobby and down the sidewalk or to the parking lot so I raced to the lobby, then outside. She was nowhere in sight. What..in..the..HELL?!!
​
I ran back to the librarians' desk.
"Where did that woman that was just here go?" I asked.
The two librarians exchanged confused looks. "What woman?" the librarian who'd been reshelving books next to us asked.
"That older woman! Short gray hair, real brightly colored floral dress, smelled like she'd bathed in perfume! You were standing right next to us!" I was nearly shouting.
Now the two librarians exchanged a look that clearly indicated I was looking like the nut case with Alzheimer's. "Ma'am, you've been the only person in the library today. I wondered who you were talking to!"
​
What in the HELL was going on?!! I knew I hadn't imagined the woman! Then I remember the book of illustrations she'd told me was in the children's section. Sure enough, there it was under the same title she'd given me and it contained exactly the style of illustrations I was looking for.
​
I was a cop. I was known for keeping a very cool head in a crisis. I most definitely was not a crier...but that morning I was so shook I cried all the way home. My husband took one look at me and said "PAT! WHAT'S WRONG?!"
I told him what had just happened in the library.
"Well? Sounds like you saw an angel," he said calmly and matter-of-factly.
"JOHN!" I shouted. "ANGELS DO NOT JUST APPEAR IN OUR LIBRARY!"
"Apparently this one did," he insisted. Which did nothing to assure me that my cheese wasn't sliding right off my cracker and next stop, looney bin.
​
It took me until that evening to calm down. I gave up trying to figure out what had happened in the library.
I sat down at the computer in another attempt to write Laura's angel story.
This time the story flowed out of me. It was as though someone was dictating it in my head. The next morning I finished the illustrations and mailed The Tiniest Angel to Laura, along with the story of what had transpired in the library.
​
Laura had about 30 guests at their house the day she made her First Communion and my brother phoned me, crying.
"We just read your story to everyone here and there isn't a dry eye in the house!" he said.
I was stunned.
​
Laura took the story to school, where it was read to her class, then the entire school. From there The Tiniest Angel traveled to Puerto Rico where it was read in schools there.
A couple of days after my brother called, his parish priest called, asking me to get the story published.
I couldn't in good conscience do that for I knew I hadn't written the story. The Angel in the Library had.
​
Were the Angelics through with teaching me about angels? Not by a long shot!
​
One night that week I fell asleep on the couch watching TV. I was in a deep sleep when I had a dream. Two huge angels appeared, their wings wrapped around something they were concealing from me.
Slowly they opened their wings to reveal Laura. "TEACH HER!" they commanded. This was so powerful I sat bolt upright out of a sound sleep.
​
I looked at the clock, it read 3 a.m. I looked at the TV screen. The off the air signal was on the screen.
Suddenly the off the air pattern disappeared from the TV screen and the two angels I'd just seen in my dream appeared on the TV screen. The screen began scrolling down until a picture of Mary appeared.
But this was impossible! I knew the station I'd had the TV tuned to went off the air at midnight!
After I saw Mary, the off the air pattern returned to the TV screen.
I began awakening every morning to voices that softly spoke words of encouragement to me. I couldn't tell if they were male or female. Finally I asked "Who IS this?"
"Mikael"
"Gabriel"
"Raphael"
​
I had to be losing it. Now I had Christmas tree toppers waking me up every morning!
​
Then my psychic friends began reporting "I see 12 huge angels around your house, protecting you!"
It wasn't just a couple of psychics. It was dozens, independently telling me they were seeing 13 huge angels guarding my house! Others began telling me they saw Archangel Mikael standing behind me wearing full battle armor. (His name isn't Michael. It's Mikael - pronounced Me-ky-el)
While I'm flattered to be seen in such illustrious company...now whose cheese was sliding off their crackers?
​
Little did I know my master orchestrator Angelics were setting the stage for my "Yes, we DO exist and we ain't any Christmas tree toppers!" lesson with regard to the Angelics.
​
They were only beginning to spin my head in 360's like Linda Blair's in The Exorcist.
