The Angel
Sue works for a large law firm. She is on one of the firm’s private
jet, returning from an overnight stay in Puerto Rico. Sue had to
fly down and tie up some lose ends. The lawyers had a big golf
game, so they sent Sue in their place. She does all the work
anyway, they have to ask her what’s going on most of the time.
Sue is very pretty and doesn’t show her age, younger men are
always asking her out because they think she is their age. Sue
spends a lot of her time helping people find lost loved ones and
reuniting them back together again. She recently found a woman’s
lost brother, they had been separated when they were small
children in an orphanage. The only thing the woman had was half
of a picture. It was picture of the two of them together as children.
They tore it in half, he kept the half with her on it, and she kept the
half with him on it.
It was all they had. She kept the picture with her as she was
switched from one foster home to another. It was a lot of hard
work but Sue found the brother and was there when they met again
for the first time in 31 years. He still had the other half of the
picture. Sue has a picture of them together. A picture is all Sue
charges for her hard work. Sue is a Christian.
Sue is in the back of the plane wearing a summer evening gown
that she had bought in Puerto Rico. The dress looked really great
on her. Sue gave the old dress she was wearing to a poor woman
she seen on the street. The only luggage Sue had was the dress she
was wearing, a purse and a brief case.
Thoughts were running threw her mind about her father. Her
mother told her all about him, he was killed before her mother had
a chance to tell him she was with child. He was a jet pilot in the
Vietnam war and was shot down in 1968.
Sue was thinking of what her and her dad might have talked about
over the years if they could have seen each other and spent some
time together. She knows they would have got along great. Sue
reclined the seat back to rest, it would be early in the morning
before they would land and it had already been a long day for her.
The pilot unknown to Sue, had made a business transaction in
Puerto Rico too. He had bought a bag of illegal drugs and had
been trying them out since they had crossed the border into the
United States. The higher he got, the lower he flew the plane. The
plane was to fly back to New York, but they were in Canada now.
The pilot was stoned out of his mind when the warning alarm went
off. It repeated over and over- pull up, pull up! The pilot said,
Shut up! and turned the warning alarm off. In just a few seconds,
the plane was crashing threw pine trees on the side of a Canadian
mountain.
When the plane came to a stop it was in pieces, scattered across
the mountain side. It was July, but there was still snow up high on
the mountain where the plane had crashed. The pilot was lost in
the crash, Sue was shaken up a bit, she didn’t have any injuries.
God protected her in the Palm of his hand during the crash.
Sue awakened in a pile of snow, it was soft and it was cold. The
pretty dress did very little to help keep her warm. The plane was
in pieces and burning. She got warm by the fire, but she knew it
wouldn’t last long. She prayed - Thy will be done Lord, deliver
me if it be your will.
Just before the last bit of fire went out, a mountain man came
alone. He had seen the lights from the burning plane and decided
to check it out. He brought some blankets along with him too.
Sue said, I’m sure glad you come around. The man said, Your
lucky I went outside to get some more wood for the fire, I usually
don’t go out after I go to bed. Sue said, Thank God you needed
more fire wood.
The man said, I don’t have anything to thank God for, so I never
do. Sue said You should and I do. The man said, Did you thank
him for the plane crash and you almost freezing to death. Sue
said, I thank god I’m alive and that he sent you with the warm
blankets.
The man said, You can stay up here all night, thanking God or you
can come with me, I don’t care which. Sue said, I can go with you
and thank him at the same time. The man said, I’m John, what do
they call you Joan of Ark? she said My name is Sue and I’m a
Christian. John said I wouldn’t’ have known it if you hadn’t told
me, as if God wasn’t ever other word out of your mouth.
John started walking off, on his way back down to his cabin, Sue
followed. She asked him if he liked to fly? He said, I never been
off the ground and don’t plan too, you see what happened to you
when you tried it. She told him how she helped find lost people
and bring them back together. John told her she talked to much.
When they made their way to the cabin, she was surprised to find a
road leading too it and a truck parked in front. John didn’t waste
any time starting the truck to take her down the mountain. He
didn’t let her go in the cabin, to get warm, he said, There is a
heater in the truck, lets go.
She asked why he was in such a hurry for her to leave, she didn’t
talk that much, did she? John said, I was married to a woman like
you once. Women always pushing a man to change and shoving a
Bible in your face. If a man is going to change it will be because
of the love between them, not by force, men don’t like being
forced into anything.
John said, My wife told me she wasn’t going to live with a sinner
and left one day. I waited for her to come back for three days,
when she didn’t return, I came to Canada. Sue said, Did you ever
write her or call her? John said No, she made her choice, and I see
the marriage vow’s - For better or worse and until death do us part
- a little different than she did I guess.
Sue said, Let me help you find her, I owe you for saving my life
anyway. He said, No, I don’t want hurt like that again, once a
woman gets running off on the brain, she’ll keep doing it every
time something doesn’t go her way. Sue said, Do you still love
her? John said I do and did then, she was all I cared about and she
knew it. She knew how bad it would hurt me if she left, but she
done it anyway. She used my love against me. I haven’t got over
that yet and maybe I never will.
He dropped Sue off in the small town below the mountain. Sue
gave him her address on a business card. She said, Write me if I
can ever do anything for you, any time at all. He said, Not likely
and drove off. Sue went inside and called the authorities to report
the plane crash.
A few years later Sue received a letter, it was from John. It said
that he has cancer and only a short time to live, six months, or
maybe less. He said, If you are as good at finding people as you
say you are, and done it before with only a picture to go by, than
here is a picture of my wife. It was taken in 1968, it is one of me
and her together. If you find her I’m in the hospital in the town
where I dropped you off. I doubt if she cares enough to come,
even if you can find her, which I doubt.
The picture was wrapped in a white cloth, she unwrapped the cloth
and looked at the picture. She knew that picture, it was one of her
mom and dad. She has a copy of it in her family photo album.
How could that be? Her father was shot down in 1968, her mother
told her so. Sue called her mother on the phone and questioned
her about it. Her mom confessed that it could be true, she said,
Sue dear, I was thinking only of you. Sue was furious that her
mother had deceived her all these years.
Sue had a father and had even met him, but never knew it. Sue
said, Come on, your coming with me to Canada. They flew to
Canada and then drove to the small town and found the hospital,
that John was in. He was now in a Coma, the cancer was in his
brain. The doctor said, There is nothing we can do for him. They
stayed there that day and all night. They both prayed for him to
wake up, it seemed it was not to be.
Sue asked if anyone around had a truck that could take them up to
John’s cabin on the mountain. She hoped to find out something
about her father there. A local preacher had a truck and he gladly
volunteered to drive them to the cabin, he knew where it was and
had visited John there before. They arrived at the cabin and went
inside. They found many copies of the picture like he had sent to
Sue. It seems to be the only one he had of them. Her mother had
taken everything with her when she left, that was the thing he had
left of their marriage.
Sue said, Mom how could you? Her mother said, I didn’t know
what else to do. That’s what everyone said, I should do, I didn’t
know all this would happen. Sue said, Why did you tell me that
story all these years. The mother answered and said It started out
as such a little lie, but then I had to tell you more to cover that one
up, It finally got to be a great big mess, but what could I do. The
preacher said, Take all things to God in prayer, even the little
things. It’s the little things that we don’t’ take to God, and we try
to handle it by ourselves. We can’t do anything without God’s help
, we just make things worse. He said, Lets go back to the hospital
and pray there with John.
They gathered around his beside and bowed their heads in prayer.
Sue’s mother said, Please forgive me for what I’ve done, I wished I
wouldn’t have left, then we could have had a happy life together,
all of us.
An old woman walked into the room, she said, Those Marriage
Vows are for a reason and it’s your promise to God, you have no
right to ever break them. She took the white cloth form Sue’s
hand, that had wrapped the picture, that John had sent to her. The
old woman tied it around the bed rail and said, God is a forgiving
God. Then she touched John on the head where the cancer was at.
The old woman turned and walked out of the room. She was an
angel sent from God to heal him.
John opened his eyes, he recognized his wife that he had loved so
long. The first words he said was I forgive you, don’t ever leave
me again. She said, I won’t, I’ll never leave you again. He turned
to Sue and said I guess you are as good as you say you are. Sue’s
mother said, That’s our daughter John. He looked at her and said,
I knew you reminded me of your mother.
John made a full recovery, the cancer disappeared. They are now
trying to pick up where they all left off. The first step was to get
back in church, a family that prays together stays together. God
sent an angel in answer to their prayers.
Written By : Johnny lee Hall
