Angel In the Library
When one works with the Angelics, one can count on them having you questioning your sanity on a daily basis. So it was with my Angel In the Library.
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My niece, Laura (Catholic) was going to be making her First Communion. I wanted to give her a unique gift no one else would give her so I decided to write and illustrate a story about angels. Laura had been born on Thanksgiving Day and the surprise ending to her story was to be that she'd been an angel sent to earth in order to remind everyone what they had to be thankful for.
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I sat at my computer for 3 days with complete writer's block. After all, at that time all I knew about 'angels' was that they made nice Christmas tree toppers. I decided to visit our local library to get some books about angels, along with a book with a specific style of illustration I wanted to illustrate Laura's story with.
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On the Saturday I stopped at our library, I had a number of errands to run so I was in a hurry. I looked up books on angels in the card catalog and rushed to the stacks where those books were housed.
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On the way, I passed an elderly gray-haired woman, dressed in a very bright floral print dress. She smelled like she'd bathed in perfume that smelled like a garden.
She smiled at me and said "Good morning, dear" as I passed her. The angel books were very close to where she was standing, maybe 3-4 feet away.
Not wanting to be rude I smiled at her and said "Good morning", then focused my attention on the section where the angel books were shelved.
'You really must be careful which books about angels you read," she continued. "So much is written about them that isn't true."
I was in a hurry so really wasn't in the mood to get into a conversation with this woman but neither did I want to be rude to her.
"Oh, you know a lot about angels, do you?" I asked, it never crossing my mind to wonder how she knew I was looking for books on angels.
"Well, I hope so dear," she replied. " I AM an angel.'
Just ducky, I thought to myself. I'm in a hurry and I get into a conversation with some nut case who thinks she's an angel. Maybe she has Alzheimers or something...
I was
Not wanting to encourage her to continue this conversation. I just smiled and her and buried my head in an angel book. At that moment, one of the librarians rolled a cart of books right up next to the two of us and began reshelving them.
"Well, I must be going dear," the woman said. "The book of illustrations you're looking for for Laura's story is in the children's section and it's titled [insert title, I forget now] And by the way, Patricia...I do not have Alzheimers."
THUD! The books I had in my hands fell to the floor. HOW HAD SHE KNOWN I WAS LOOKING FOR ILLUSTRATIONS? HOW DID SHE KNOW I WAS WRITING A STORY FOR LAURA? HOW DID SHE KNOW MY NAME?!!
In the instant it took me to pick up the books I'd dropped, she was gone.
Now, our library at that time was the size of a shoebox. You could scan the entire library from the front desk. I ran to the front desk and looked around the entire library. The woman was nowhere to be seen. Knowing she hadn't had enough time to get to and out of the lobby, I ran to the lobby then outside to scan the sidewalk and parking lot. The woman was nowhere to be seen.
The new Minocqua Library that is bigger than a shoebox
But this was impossible! I ran back to the librarians desk and asked "Where did that woman go that was just here?"
The two exchanged very confused looks and the one who'd stood right next to us reshelving books asked "What woman?"
"The gray haired one wearing the really colorful floral print dress! You were standing right next to us reshelving books!' I nearly shouted.
The librarians exchanged another glance that clearly indicated I was now the one looking like she had Alzheimers.
"Ma'am," she replied. "You've been the only person in the library all morning. I wondered who it was you were talking to!"
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Oh Jesus, Mary and Joseph. I knew I hadn't imagined the entire incident. I was a cop, the one who kept a cool head in any crisis and cops don't have overly active imaginations. WHAT IN THE HELL had just happened?
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Then I remembered the title of the book she'd said contained the type of illustrations I was looking for. I rushed to the children's section. Sure enough, there it was! Not only was the title she'd given me correct but it contained exactly the style of illustration I was looking for - proof I hadn't imagined anything!
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Now, I'm not a crier. But I'll be honest here and say I was so rattled I cried all the way home.
My husband took one look at me and said "WHAT'S WRONG?!!'
I told him about the encounter I'd just had.
"Well? It sounds like you were visited by an angel," he said calmly.
"JOHN! ANGELS DON'T JUST SHOW UP AT THE MINOCQUA LIBRARY!" I shouted.
"Well, apparently this one did," he replied matter-of-factly - which did nothing to calm my mounting hysteria. Eventually I gave up trying to figure the whole incident out and that night I sat down at my computer to attempt to write Laura's story, The Tiniest Angel, again.
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This time it was different. I had no writer's block. That story flowed out of me as though someone were dictating it to me in my head. And I suspected I knew who that 'someone' was - none other than my Angel In the Library. I wrote that entire story in 30 minutes.
I illustrated the entire story the next morning and mailed it to my niece, with the story of my encounter with my Angel In the Library.
No, the story doesn't end there. The Angelics weren't anywhere through with the likes of me yet!
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The day of Laura's First Communion party my brother phoned me in tears, saying they'd just read my story to not only Laura, but all 30 or so of their guests. And there wasn't a dry eye in the house.
Laura took The Tiniest Angel to school, where it was read to her class, then the entire school.
From there, it traveled to Puerto Rico and was read in schools there.
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A couple of days later I got another phone call from my brother, stating their parish priest wanted me to get the story published. But I knew I hadn't authored that story so couldn't take credit for it.
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That same night I fell asleep on my sofa, wathing TV. I had an extremely vivid dream in which 2 huge angels appeared to me, with their wings wrapped around something they were concealing from me. They opened their wings slowly and commanded "TEACH HER!"
That command was so powerful it woke me from deep sleep and I sat bolt upright on the sofa. I looked at the clock - 3 a.m. The TV station I'd been watching went off the air at midnight and the multi colored vertical bar pattern was on the TV screen, that designated the TV station was off the air.
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Suddenly that bar pattern disappeared and the 2 angels from my dream appeared on the TV screen! The screen began to slowly scroll down...until an image of Mary appeared.
Then the TV screen returned to the vertical, multi colored bar pattern that indicated it was off the air.
Cops are the biggest skeptics in the world and I'm no different. I stayed up every night for a week watching that station sign off the air precisely at midnight, that bar pattern appearing on the screen when it did.
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The morning after that and for a few successive mornings, I'd be awakened to voices speaking to me, giving me empowering messages. Finally I asked "Who IS this?"
"Mikael"
"Gabriel"
"Raphael"
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I now had talking Christmas tree toppers as my alarm clock! As if that weren't weird enough, dozens of my psychic friends began reporting "I'm seeing these 12 HUGE angels surrounding your house and protecting you!"
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As for The Tiniest Angel? I didn't end up having to teach her anything. She became a missionary working with the impoverished in 3rd world countries, then became a nun.
She now works at the Vatican, coordinating all funding for missionary programs worldwide. Her "nun name"? Sister Virgen Mary Oyente.
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She did end up becoming The Tiniest Angel.