Guardian Angels: A True Story

Speaking of Guardian Angels (as I did in an earlier post). Did I ever tell you this true story involving one?

This incident took place about 10-12 years ago, when I and my former partner were still happily living together.

I remember it was January -- some two or three weeks after Christmas. The blazing Australian summer temperatures of February were still a few weeks off. My partner had received as a Christmas gift, a scented candle. Set somewhere inside this candle was a small silver 'guardian angel'. The idea was that you lit the candle, and eventually, once the candle had burnt down low enough, the 'guardian angel' would be exposed and presumable set free to do its good work.

So here it was, a lovely balmy summer afternoon, when my partner decided to go and have a lie down on the fold out sofa in the lounge room. She also thought she might as well start the process of releasing the 'guardian angel', so she lit the candle, placed it up on the built in cupboard well away from the curtains, but near the bookshelf, and stretched out on the lounge to have a rest.

Meanwhile, yours truly, here, was down in the back room (the computer room, as I liked to call it), wasting time doing God knows what. I simply can't remember now. My house is not that big. You walk out of the lounge room, down a short hallway, to a cluster of bedrooms - one of which was being used as the afore mentioned computer room. Like I say, I can't remember exactly what I was doing on the computer that day. Nor can I remember if it was an hour later, or two hours later. But I do remember this...

At some point during the afternoon, I distinctly felt someone or something enter the computer room. Since my back was to the door, I turned around to see who, or what, had come into the room. There was no-one there. That's strange, I thought, someone or some thing, some presence had made me turn around fully expecting to see them. But there was nothing. Nobody. And since there was no-one there, I turned back to my work at the computer.

Immediately, and I do mean immediately, once more, some one, or some thing entered the room, and I felt an irrisistable urge to look around again. I could feel this presence trying to get my attention.

Again I look around towards the door, and could see nothing. But this time I felt something was wrong, and knew I had to get up and walk down towards the lounge room and kitchen area, and see what that 'something' was.

Imagine my surprise as I walked out of the computer room into the hallway, to see smoke, gentle working its way along the ceiling towards my end of the house. I rushed down the hallway and turned into the lounge room. Now, imagine my shock to see the top third of the lounge room filled with thick black smoke, and diagonally across from the lounge room door, the bookcase, its shelves stuffed tight with books, going up in flames!

And where was my beloved? Stretched out on the fold out sofa, fast asleep, or so I hoped!

I rushed into the lounge room calling her name. I remember she didn't respond the first time, and as I reached her I roared her name once more. To my great relief, she sat bolt upright so quickly that it almost felt like there must have been some sort of mechanism built into the sofa to propel her up so forcefully.

Needless to say, we got out of there immediately. Luckily, not only did we have enough time to call the fire brigade, but I also, somewhat heedlessly I must say, rushed back into the house with a garden hose and managed to extinguish the bulk of the fire before the fire service arrived.

Of course, the scented candle had been the cause of the fire. But here's the kicker. A day or two later, as the cleanup began and we were removing charred books, melted cassette tapes and other debri from the lounge room, we took a closer look at the offending candle.

And there, lying exposed in the remains of the candlewax -- was the Guardian Angel.

Now I don't know about you, dear reader, but I've been around quite a few years, and I've seen some pretty strange and wonderful things. Many of which can't be explained by the rationalizations of educated men or women. So how do I explain this? The work of God or some higher source? Mere coincidence, perhaps, and nothing more?

I don't know. What I do know, however, is that as I sat in the back room in front of the computer, an overwhelming presence entered that space and demanded my attention -- not once, but twice. And it was only as a result of responding to the presence that I discovered the fire in the lounge room.

This story is filled with potential 'What ifs'. What if I had ignored that presence and stayed at the computer until I actually smelt the smoke before I'd responded? What if I'd done that and hadn't smelt the smoke at all, but simply been overcome by it and collapsed in my chair? What if? What if? What if?

Finally, take another look at that strange image at the beginning of this entry. I offer you Exhibit A. That's right, that's the candle -- still covered in grime and soot as a result of the fire, but minus the Guardian Angel. What happened to this precious little silver icon? Several years after this incident, my partner and I went our separate ways. However, we parted as friends and have kept in contact over the years since we broke up. A few years ago, my ex-partner took a trip overseas. As a gift, I removed the Guardian Angel from the candle, cleaned it up, and gave it to her so that it could continue doing what it was designed to do -- that is, look after her, and make sure she comes to no harm.

I'm delighted to report, the Angel appears to be fulfilling its duties very well. And long may it continue to do so.

--o0o--

Quote of The Day...

Faith is, at one and the same time, absolutely necessary and altogether impossible. ~ Stanislaw Lem (1921 - 2006)

--o0o--

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