Samantha's Encounter

It was early on a Saturday morning. My husband was lying in a specialist cancer hospital nearly 30 miles away and close to death. My daughter was just months old. My family lived in Canada and I knew very few people locally as my husband and I had moved to the area specifically for his job, which he had done for less than a year before becoming ill.

I went into wake my daughter - only to find that she was lying in her cot - she didn't look right, and picking her up was like picking up a rag doll, and she was covered in a rash. I can't even begin to tell you how much I panicked at that moment - my husband was dying and here was my daughter seemingly very ill too. My local GP's was literally about two minutes drive away so I rushed down there with her. The doctor wasn't there - he was out on an emergency call, but the receptionist was, and she did the tumbler test on the virus (a test for meningitis - my fear which I did not dare put into words) and the virus didn't disappear under the tumbler. She then immediately panicked and started telling me that I needed to go to a particular hospital, which put me into an immediate panic as I didn't know the way to that hospital. Of course, now I know I should have just dialled 999, but I was in such a state that blind panic took over.

And then a man appeared. He looked very much like I had always imagined Father Christmas to look. He was wearing blue denim overalls; had white hair and a white beard with rosy red cheeks. I immediately felt calm, and a feeling came over me that I have only felt since in meditation. He paid absolutely no notice to the receptionist, and asked me if I needed to go to the hospital. I was speechless, and all I was able to do was nod. He told me to follow him in his car and he would take me there. He didn't ask me which hospital (there were several within a 30 mile radius of the village we lived in) and I didn't tell him which one either. I remember he had a beat up van with a trailer on the back, and I followed him which is something that I would never normally have done, but he was different.

We arrived at the hospital, and of course there was a pay and display car park. In my rush when I had found my daughter ill I had left the house without any money. I heard a knock on my window, and he was there holding out some money for me, and said "You'll need this for parking - there'll be enough left over to get yourself something to eat and drink too. Don't worry about her, she'll be fine." Again, just being in his presence, I again was speechless. I don't think I was even able to manage a thank you. And then I looked around and he was gone.

My daughter was fine. She didn't have meningitis, and they gave her antibiotics. There was enough money left for me to have a hot drink and something to eat as I hadn't eaten or drunk anything since the night before.

I have thought about this so many times in the years since it happened. How did he know which hospital to take me to? Why did I feel that overwhelming feeling of peace and calm whenever he spoke to me? Who was he? I went back to the surgery and left money with them at the reception desk to pay him back for the money he had given to me, but they couldn't identify him, and as far as I'm aware (we moved away when my husband died) he never came and collected the money I left there.

I am convinced that he was an angel. I now use my experiences of grief and struggle and pain to help others.

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This page last updated Saturday April 10th 2010