Do You Believe in Angels?

I do, more than ever.

April 3rd, 2003. I remember it as if it were yesterday …

“Okay girls … we’re nearly ready to go!  I have my shopping list and handbag, the nappy bag is stocked up, I have a drink for each of us and some food, and there are a few toys and books for you to play with in the car in case you get bored.

Oh yeah!  It’s Aunty Amanda’s birthday today!  I’ll just give her a quick call before we go then we’ll be in the car and on our way” …

Over the next five minutes, I made the phone call then put the kids and bags in the car.  When I came back inside the house to check that I’d turned off the lights, I made a spur-of-the-moment decision that fortunately, we have lived for me to regret …

I glanced quickly across the loungeroom floor (I don’t know why I did this – habit probably!), then as I began turning to leave the room, my eyes settled on it, yet again … hanging on the wall, annoying me as much as ever, was the framed print of four tigers cubs that I’d had for years.

“Geez this is annoying me.  One of these days, I will get new glass in it”.

You see, at that point in time, we’d moved house for the third time in three years and during the most recent move, the glass on this picture cracked in one section.  I was relieved at the time that the break didn’t cause the glass to fall out, however, the more I looked at the picture (it’s very cute!), the more those cracks annoyed me.  Mind you, it had been hanging there with the cracks in it for 12 months!

Shopping with two young children can be very tiring (for them and me!), so getting new glass for the picture always managed to end up at the bottom of my “To Do” list.  I had no plan of getting new glass on this particular day, but as I stood there looking at it, I changed my mind.

“It’s going to be a long day anyway.  One more job won’t make much difference”.

So I took the picture down, shut the back door and went to the car where the girls were waiting very patiently for me (one daughter was 4.5 years old and the other 13 months old at this time).

When I opened the boot of the car, I was disappointed to find that I couldn’t fit the picture in!  Grrr.  Between the pram, bags and other things in the boot, there just wasn’t enough room for anything else (the picture was roughly 3 ft x 2 ft in size).

Against my better judgement, I grabbed a backpack (albeit a very full one) out of the boot and sat the picture on the floor of the car, resting it against the front passenger seat with the backpack leaning against the picture to stop any movement.

Important Note:  Always listen to your intuition/gut instinct/inner guidance/sixth sense … whatever you choose to call it, it’s real and it talks to you for a very good reason.

Finally, we’re on our way!  Down the driveway, left on to the road …

“Geez, I hate this road!  If it isn’t full of potholes, there’s too much loose gravel on it!  Whoever put this last lot of gravel on the road used way too much!  Talk about dangerous!  I can’t believe how fast others drive down this road – it scares me!  I’m happy driving like a nanna along this road.  At least I know we’ll be safe” …

We’d only driven a short distance along the road when I sneezed.  While this normally wouldn’t be a problem, this time it was a BIG problem!

As I sneezed, I was at a slight bend in the road where the gravel shoulder was particularly dangerous.  The new gravel on that section was piled quite high.  Only days earlier, I’d thought to myself how dangerous that could be – how ironic!

When I sneezed, I obviously moved the steering wheel slightly to the right and before I knew it, the unthinkable was happening …

The right hand side wheel(s) had clipped this thick gravel and the car was fishtailing!  At first I thought I’d be able to control the car because I was only driving slowly (thank goodness!!!!!), but within seconds, I discovered first-hand how hard it is to regain control of a car fishtailing on gravel, even when driving slowly.

TO MY ABSOLUTE HORROR, the more I tried to straighten up, the worse the fishtailing became!  As the car swerved from side to side, the momentum  increased and the next thing I knew, the car was rolling!  I held onto the steering wheel as tightly as I could and let loose an expletive – or two.

The accident happened so quickly, yet it also seemed like everything happened in slow motion – it was surreal.

As the car was rolling over, I had the most overwhelming sensation that “this was it”.  Many thoughts flashed though my head, not about my life, but about not being there for my two children.

When the car stopped moving (fortunately upright), I sat there utterly stunned, numb, shocked – you name it.  I wasn’t even sure whether I was dead or alive! (I realise how silly that might sound to you, but that’s what was going through my head at the time).  As I looked down, I saw glass – HEAPS OF IT!  It was then that I realised that the framed picture had smashed!

Then an unfathomable realisation hit me … glass everywhere and silence in the car.  My heart stopped (literally, I’m 200% sure of it).  As I turned my head VERY slowly, trying not to imagine the worst, the kids both started screaming.  I’ve never been more relieved and grateful about anything in my life, to this day!

“Thank, God!  We’re all alive!” It was then that I burst into tears.

I had both splinters and chunks of glass on me from the picture, but amazingly, I didn’t have any cuts!  When I looked around the car to see where the rest of the glass had gone, my heart stopped again …

Directly behind both girls, were HUGE shards of glass – heaps of them!  The 4.5 year old was in her seat directly behind me, and the 13 month old was in her seat in the middle of the back seat.  There wasn’t ANY glass in the vacant seat beside the 13 month old OR at the back of the car directly behind the vacant seat!

It was at this point that I cried louder and harder at the realisation of how easily they could both have been killed by flying shards of glass!

Then my head started to hurt.  The rear vision mirror had come off and whacked me in the head.  My right shoulder throbbed from banging against the door.  My chest hurt from the seatbelt (I had a doozie of a bruise along my neck and chest for a few weeks!).

“Okay, calm down, we’re all okay.  Don’t panic, but we have to get out of here!  I’ve turned off the ignition but what if the car explodes anyway!  *&^%$@!!”

My door was the only door that would open, so I unbuckled the kids and got them out through my door.  I grabbed my handbag (that was covered in glass), a Barbie doll (what the?!) and whatever else I could manage to get out of the car.  I checked both the girls over to find that neither of them had a scratch!!  My eldest daughter had a sore head from being bumped from side to side in her car seat, but other than that, no injuries that I could see.

A short time later, a neighbour came along and she took us home.  I couldn’t contact my husband for a while, so I rang Mum who left her home immediately to be with us (she lives over an hour from where we lived then).  She took us all to the local hospital a little later on to be checked out.  Other than a headache and a bump on her head, my eldest daughter was fine.  My other daughter was perfectly fine too, not even a bump!

I had quite a few bruises and slight concussion.

For the next few weeks, whenever I shut my eyes, I felt like I was in the car, rolling.  Thoughts of “what if ” played on my mind for a very long time.  I had regular nightmares about the accident that have thankfully stopped at long last.

While I understand that scientifically, it may be possible to explain the trajectory of the glass in the car that day, as far as I am concerned, what are the chances of all that glass flying around the car, ending up where it did and nobody sustaining even the slightest scratch?!

I have no doubt whatsoever that “someone” was looking after each of us that day.

I’ve kept the picture as a reminder of how lucky we were that day.  The tow truck driver knocked out the small amount of remaining glass from the frame for me, but the picture has lots of scratches on it.  I bought a new one (same picture) that I have hanging on the wall here above my computer.

What do you think happened that day?  Do you believe it was sheer fluke that none of us were even slightly injured by glass, or do you think there may have been some Divine Intervention?

You already know what I believe … I’d love to know what you believe.  I’m utterly fascinated by experiences with angels/spiritual beings/spiritual guides (again, whatever you choose to call them) and strongly believe in them.  If you have any stories you’d like to share on this topic, I’d LOVE to hear them!

PS:  I still hate gravel roads.  We no longer live where we were at the time of the accident (another move!), but we do live on another gravel road!  I’m relieved that it’s a much safer and shorter one though.

Tagged as: believe in angels, guardian angel, guardian angels, spiritual beings, spirituality