An Angel Named Erin

Last Monday  traveling north on I-75 taking my granddaughter back home, I smiled when we passed the Williamsburg, Kentucky exit.  I smiled again on my way home.  I'll smile at that exit for the rest of my life.

Around 1975 a small charismatic woman came up to me after church and said, "David, you have an angel."  I said, "Yeah, sometimes I feel like I do."  She told me, "No, I don't mean  like that.  I mean you really have an angel. I saw him. He was standing behind you when you sang.  He's a little taller than you are.  If you ever want to talk to him, his name is Hank." Over the years I have talked to Hank a lot.  And there have been times that I'm pretty sure that he talked to me.

According to to the Bible and other religious traditions, angels appear in a variety of forms.  I do not doubt the existence of angels in any form, but in my experience most of them are flesh and blood. Such was the case last May.

Our granddaughter loves the water. She's has enjoyed splashing in the bathtub since she was born and now she swims like a fish in a pool. Getting her in the water is no problem; getting her out is another matter.  When my wife and I stop at a  hotel with her, a pool is a must. "Do you have an indoor pool" is one of the first questions we ask on the phone. Sometimes we stop just so she can swim. Such was the case last May when we stopped to spend the night at the Hampton Inn in Williamsburg, Kentucky.

I was playing in the pool with her and she seemed to be enjoying my company. A family appeared at the pool and with no warning or introduction a little girl jumped in the pool right beside our granddaughter. They were immediately best friends.  Erin loved the water as much as our granddaughter and they gleefully played together for nearly two hours.  At that point it was time to go. We extended the play time by getting food that we all ate together in the lobby. We decided to exchange contact information at breakfast. The next morning they never showed at breakfast and there was no answer at their door. They were gone. Our granddaughter said, "I'll never see Erin again in my whole life."  We regretfully told her that that was probably true.

I don't know a lot about angels, but I do believe that they exist. Erin may not have had wings, but she was certainly an angel in disguise that night in Williamsburg. She appeared out of nowhere and vanished just as quickly  We  had just seen the Pixar animation Inside/Out a few days before our stay in the hotel. Pixar ingeniously brings to life human emotions that are actual characters in the movie. The characters tell us the truth about our emotions--they affect the way we feel, but more often than not we choose how we want to feel and our emotions accommodate our commands. They respond to us. My wife tried to comfort our granddaughter with encouraging words. "Don't be sad. Just think of all the good friends that you have.". But she responded, "I choose sadness for one hour."