An Angel Encounter

They say that little children can see things that adults cannot…

When I was 4 or 5 yrs. old my grandfather Floyd Lilly and, I were getting ready to put up his gardening tools for the day.

I would follow the man sometimes like a little shadow. This one day he was putting up his tools in the little pump house right behind his house. It is still there today, the new owners didn’t tear it down. I was muttering along, He opened up the door and’ told me to move back out of his way.

It was a beautiful spring day. The clouds were big and puffy. The wind was blowing them dancing through the sky. I turned my head upward toward them and out of the sky; I know I was a child but, I can remember this as if it were yesterday… I saw this beautiful lady on a rope swing come down from the sky. She was an angel. She had beautiful long wavy hair. White long pearl dress and wings not big but more like an aura around her.

I was really frightened and I screamed Papaw look… He backed out of the pump house. He put his arm on my little shoulder and, said yes I see. Woo Wee he said. He assured me that she would not harm me, that I should never tell anyone what I had seen. He said this is our secret don’t say a word…

I went running through the path in his garden to my home. Mom was hanging clothes on the line outside. It was chilly so I ran in and remember warming in front of the stove. I was just rambling on and on about the angel in the swing… She said oh you had a bad dream. You didn’t see a real one… I remember they were having a baptism in the Guyandotte river right below our house and I watched through the window. The music was so similar to the music on that movie Oh Brother and reminded me of the baptism. I thought maybe the angel came to watch it.

Now after this event took place. I quit talking to anyone except for my mom and sister. This went on for almost a year. I remember them saying they wanted to take me to a doctor… They’d give me notes to take to the store or grandmothers to get something. They tried everything. They knew I was going to be old enough for school and they had to get me to talk… I was bribed with all kinds of stuff. Money, Candy, nothing worked… One day my grandmother said If you go out to Papaw and say I love you Papaw I will give you some candy and, If you don’t I will give it to your sister Libby and, she will eat it all. She said people think the cat got your tongue… I laughed stuck out my tongue at her and touched it…

When she handed Libby the candy I knew I had to do the hardest thing in my life… I ran out to the Pump house of all places. I looked up into the sky where I’d stand and wait sometimes thinking shed come back. I said the words grabbed the candy and flew home… Two yrs later Papaw was diagnosed with cancer and, lived only 6 months after that. I’d go outside and watch for the angel to come and tell her not to take Papaw. Never said a word to anyone never even thought of saying anything…

Yrs later after he passed, my grandmother and her daughters were setting out back. Talking about Papaw how he loved to come out back and, play his harmonica. Granny said it was like he was playing for someone. I remembered the angel and, told her about it and how he made me promise to never say a word… She said and, you didn’t for almost a year. I wondered who the angel was?

A few years ago after having survived breast cancer. I was up at mothers and decided to go take a movie of the cemetery right across from where I had seen the angel. I was playing “Angels Among Us” my favorite song, and doing a video of the graves. I got down and blew up a picture of my Granny Mary, My Grandfathers first wife… Oh God, That was the angel… That was her… I was so excited… She was my guardian Angel Mary. No wonder papaw told me not to say a word… He had seen her too. Maybe shed came to let him know she was coming to get him… The mystery as far as I’m concerned is over.