Guardian Angels

My dear Mom who passed away due to cancer in 1987 believed in guardian angels. She always felt that our family had been protected by a power greater than our own common sense. Most likely she was right. Our family has been blessed with good fortune for years. It's not that we haven't had our share of challenges, but when we needed divine intervention things have worked out.

Anyway, when Mom was diagnosed with terminal cancer she was needless to say greatly disappointed that she would not be on this Earth to see her grandchildren grow up. So, in her last months she promised her six children that she would be the Meek clan's guardian angel. Most people would think that was a sweet gesture and then would forget about it.

However, Mom frequently sends reminders she is watching over us.

For example, two years ago at Brian and Brooke's wedding rehearsal dinner on the beach at Daufuskie Island, a double rainbow rose up above the ocean as I was toasting their marriage. And last week, in the Santa Cruz Mountains on a perfectly calm day, as Jo and Joel stepped forward to the spot where they would become a couple forever, a breeze blew directly through them raising the veil on Jo's dress. I looked around us and nothing else was moving. The redwoods were still, the lake was calm, and my eyes were wet. Julie, Nancy, Donna and Joe also interpreted this veil-lifting breeze as Mom's presence. It was just Mom's way of telling us she was there.

The rest of the day was equally remarkable. but I would refer you to Brooke's blog at www.thethreeolives.com. She captured the moments beautifully.

Needing, but not wanting to, Julie and I took off Monday morning on separate flights (to save a couple hundred bucks) and I had the pleasure of being on the same flight as Julio and Marilyn Fernandez. I've known Marilyn since carhops were on roller skates, so we had quite a chat. Nevertheless, my flight was routine and arrived on time in Indy. I contacted Julie and confirmed she was on time in Chicago an hour behind me. When my phone rang at her scheduled arrival time I assumed she was on the runway in Indy, but that was not the case. Her plane had returned to Chicago to make an emergency landing. The plane had lost the computer that controlled the landing gear. The crew went into full emergency mode just like the "Miracle on the Hudson" only this one was on concrete. Julie thought she was going to die. But the back-up computer worked, the landing gear came down and she eventually returned home safely on a different plane.

Mom was there.