Heavenly Orb

Since making a doll in Girl Scouts, I have loved to sew and do needle work. I’m not a seamstress, I just dabble, but when I was maybe in the seventh or eighth grade I decided I wanted to learn to sew. I wanted to make my own clothes.

Mom was working as a secretary at Southern West Virginia Community College at the time and through this position, she met a wonderful young lady by the name of Virgie Evans. Not only was Virgie an excellent seamstress, but a very kind, gentle, giving person. She did not hesitate to agree to teach me to sew.

We worked on this yellow plaid slacks and vest outfit. Can you imagine, an inexperienced seamstress using plaid for her first project. Any other person would have discouraged me from using the plaid, but not Virgie. She and her sister, Ann, worked side-by-side with me until the outfit was completed. It looked pretty good, not homemade at all.

One night Virgie, mom and I had been working on the outfit at our house in Williamson, West Virginia. It was getting late and Virgie had to leave. Mom volunteered to take her home, because of the darkness outside. It is so clear to me. We walked out of the house to get in the car. As we turned at the top of the driveway to walk to the car I said, “Look at the full moon!” Mom and Virgie commented as did I, “I don’t remember seeing the moon ever so close to the ground. I don’t remember it ever being so big. I don’t remember ever seeing the moon sitting between the Beinhorns and the Harvits (our neighbors across the street).”

It was then we realized the huge glowing orb in the sky was not the moon at all, for as we scanned the heavens, we discovered the moon to our left, not full and not near as large as what we were viewing in front of us. It was beautiful. We stood there frozen with our eyes transfixed on the white sphere until something began to happen. Slowly the sphere began to move close. The white of the orb began to disappear being replaced with what appeared to be the night sky.

It was like a giant eye closing. It was when the globe was almost completely dark; we noticed what looked like diamonds lining the bottom. When the eye had closed, it left only the thin row of twinkling diamonds. Then in an instant, poof, the twinkling diamonds were gone leaving only the heavenly bodies of the night sky. For years mother and I never spoke of the beautiful heavenly sphere, but today with all the sightings of strange objects in the sky, we no longer hesitate to discuss it. However, my mother remembers this event in a different way, but this is my story and I’m sticking to it.