Angel Intervention

Author : Edward Rose
Angel Intervention?Last Friday my 12 year old son and I were working on our privacy fence in our back yard. We have a swimming pool and it can get a little noisy. We put up a privacy fence mostly to cut down the noise so as not to disturb our neighbors. This fence has been a thorn in my side for almost a year; you see it keeps falling down for one reason or another. We had taken the fence apart earlier in the day and went onto other projects while the glue we had used on the stone foundation set. After lunch we went back to work with enthusiasm, knowing all we had to do was put the fence back together. My son steadied the fence from the inside while I went around back to fasten some screws. Some screws were up high so I stepped on top of an outer chain link fence top. From my yard that fence is less than two feet off the ground but approximately six feet from the neighbors ground. I grabbed my screw driver drill and stepped on top of the chain link fence and started shuffling along to where the screws were. As I started to align the fence and brackets I lost my balance and started falling backwards. I tried to reach for the fence in front of me but it was too late. With my electric drill still in hand, over I went.I remember first going through a series of bushes, hoping they would break my fall. I kept falling, landing on a brick ledge of a raised flower bed. That must be it I figured, but that was not the case. From the brick ledge I still had another 18 inches to go before a complete and sudden stop. I lay there for a few seconds with my eyes closed, then I heard my son calling," Dad, Dad", with panic in his voice. I slowly sat up and reassured him I was okay, I asked him to go and get mommy and he ran off to get her. I sat there for a few seconds trying to figure out what had just happened. I was laying on my back with the drill still in my right hand, to the left the neighbors pool lay about six inches away. As I sat up I realized my hat, glasses and clip on sun glasses had flown off and landed on top of the pools cover. I reached for my hat and put it back on; I couldn't reach my glasses and clip-ons. I don't think I lost consciousness but I was certainly disoriented and had a bad headache, slowly I moved my bottom to the stone ledge and sat there until my wife and neighbor emerged from the house.As I sat there, my wife and neighbor asked questions and thoroughly scanned my head, back, shoulders, ribs, arms and legs. Amazingly there was not a mark on me, except a few minor scrapes from the bushes. I was talking and knew what day it was, I understood what had just happened and that I was not badly injured. This was the point at which I realized I had broken a garden ornament during my fall. It was in about 4 or 5 pieces, and as I was picking up the pieces I told our neighbor I would replace the broken ornament, to which she said "don't worry about it". Then I thought maybe I could put it back together and started placing pieces together like a jigsaw puzzle. It was then I realized the garden ornament was an angel. My wife helped me to my feet and we went home, apart from a severe headache I was uninjured and just rested for the remainder of the day.On Sunday morning we were on our way to church, I was recounting the story of my fall as more of the incident became clearer to me. I had everyone laughing as I mentioned the thoughts going through my mind as I fell. Falling through the bushes, hitting the bricks thinking it was over, but in a nanosecond realizing I was still falling and totally destroying an angel innocently standing in the garden. Then there was quiet and I said, jokingly, "Maybe the angel broke my fall". Maybe the angel broke my fall? In retrospect I should have said with conviction; "The angel broke my fall!". Of this I now have no doubt, how does a 48 year old man weighing 180 pounds fall backwards down a distance of six feet and end up with little or no injury? Clearly the angel gave its life so that I would not be seriously injured or killed.Edward M Rose is a NASCAR racing writer, the above story is true.
Keyword : Church, angel, garden