Psalm 91:11 (NASB)
For He will give His angels charge concerning you,
To guard you in all your ways.
It was May, 1995, and 44-year-old Denise lay in the
recovery room at Yale University Hospital in New Haven, Connecticut. She had
been very ill with throat cancer for over a year. Radiation hadn't worked, and
surgery had been her only option. Now her voicebox and lymph nodes had been
removed, to halt the disease's progress. But her chance for life seemed even
less than the doctor had anticipated. Now, as Denise slowly awakened, many
people in white coats surrounded her. They seemed grim, and Denise was seized
with a sudden terror. What was wrong? She looked up and noticed one very young
doctor. He was looking down at her, his expression kind, and he seemed to glow.
She must be dreaming...
When Denise got back to her room, her worried brother Ron
was waiting. Although she could no longer speak, she gestured to Ron. "I
wanted to see what they had cut and what they had done to me. Ron hesitated but
handed me my compact." Denise gasped. Her head looked at least three times
its normal size. Her throat had been cut past both ears and she couldn't raise
her head. She began to sob. Ron ran for a doctor.
Instead, the young man Denise had seen in the recovery
room came in. "It's all right," he told her soothingly. "Your
head won't stay like this. The scar is bad, yes, but you're alive, and you're
going to get better." He picked up her hand and held it. Peace seemed to
flow through Denise. She fell asleep.
The next time Denise awakened, it was four a.m. When she
rang for a nurse, the same doctor came in! He was smiling, and he spoke so softly
she could barely hear him. "You're going to be all right. I want you to
know that. I'm here. I'll never leave you," he said, leaning over her.
This time Denise was awake enough to study him. His features seemed flawless.
His hair was short and blond, cut in an old fashioned way with longish bangs
and parted on the left. He had bright blue/green eyes. His hand was warm, soft,
and strong. Again, Denise fell asleep with him telling her she would be fine.
From that point on, every day at 4 a.m. she would wake up and he would be
there, holding her hand and talking softly.
"The next time Ron came in to see me, I wrote to him
on my tablet about this doctor," Denise says. "I wanted Ron to find
out his name. I wanted to thank him for being so kind to stay with me when I
was too afraid to be alone. I suggested Ron check the interns because I thought
he must be an intern. What doctor would have this much time to spend with just
one patient?"
Ron went out to talk to the nurses, but when he returned,
he looked at her strangely. "You must have been dreaming," he said.
"NO!" Denise scribbled on the pad.
"He doesn't exist, Dee, I asked all the nurses. And
they checked. No one has seen anyone like him. No one knows him, either"
Denise knew better than to argue with Ron. It was only
later, when she got home, that she learned her brother had continued to look
for the unknown doctor. Ron had stopped only when several nurses assured him
that it wasn't at all unusual for a hospital patient to see her guardian angel.
Denise recovered from cancer, and she knows she suffered
less because God allowed her angel to be very visible to her. "Maybe
someday," she says, "I can tell him face to face once again, Thank
you so much."
Dear Lord we thank You for those You send our way to take
care of us and encourage us. In Jesus’ name, Amen.
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