AN ANGEL VISIT

Stanley Peele serves as a district judge in North Carolina and on weekends and evenings visits at the North Carolina Hospital in Chapel Hills. He supports the work of the Association for Researach and Enlightenment in Virginia Beach and reads the Bible to those who are in need at the hospital. He tells about one of his visits to a very ill elderly woman. "As I entered her room she was moaning and speaking words that made no sense to me. Her eyes glazed and she didn't seem to respond to my presence. A few days later I visited her again, she was a little better, moaned and said her leg hurt. She spoke of her family and felt they had deserted her and then alternated between periods of responsiveness and her words became garbled.

Continuing with reading Psalm 63, 'my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is,' she responded, "Amen." After reading it several more times she responded again each time and I noticed she was looking off to my left. "Is that your daughter?" she asked. I saw no one and looked around to see if there was a picture on the wall, but there was nothing that could be mistaken for a girl. I told her I saw no one and said I did not have a daughter. She looked annoyed, as if I were a wayward child, and repeated with emphasis, "Is that your child?"

This time I understood. Smiling I asked her, "Are you seeing angels?" 'Yes!' she answered! Her voice was strong and sure and her eyes clear, her language precise and thoughtful. Her pain disappeared.

She had seen an angel who appeared to be a little girl about 10 years old. She had asked if this was my child; so the angel was with me. Although in pain and seriously ill, this 79-year-old woman was able to give me a precious gift. I believe this little angel goes with me when I walk through the hospital on my rounds. She sits with me when I visit patients. I feel her presence. I cannot see her now; but someday I will!" was the conclusion of Judge Stanley Peele. From "Venture Inward"