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A trick of the mind or a life-changing experience? Read these four stories – then make up your own mind.
For most people, guardian angels are the stuff of fiction for for some, the sense that someone or something from a different world is ‘guarding’ them is very real. This Sunday, World Angel Day will be celebrated in 22 countries, including the UK. Here, four women who believe they have been visited by angels, and have had profound life-changing experiences as a result, share their stories with HAZEL COURTENEY.
SUSIE ANTHONY, 44, is a management consultant who has worked with captains of industry such as Tiny Rowland and Alan Bond. Susie is single and, when in the UK, is based In a four-bedroom house In Newbury, Berkshire. She says:
I USED to be a total sceptic about anything spiritual, let alone angels. All I worshipped were designer labels like Chanel and Gucci.
I flew first class or on private jets, and all that mattered was how people looked and how much money and power they had.
That was before 1992 and an experience that saved me, I believe, from certain death.
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I was working 18 hour days, six days a week. With the exhaustion and
stress, like many of my high-flying contemporaries, I turned to drugs.
In two years a cocaine was costing me £500 a day. Eventually, during a
cocaine binge alone in an apartment in Johannesburg, I passed out. When
I woke up I was looking down on my body which was convulsing on the
floor in the last throes of death.
Then, I was surrounded by an incredible sapphire blue light and an
angel-like figure spoke to me telepathically, telling me that he was
called Michael and was my guardian angel. Michael said I was dying, but it wasn’t yet my time.
Before I returned to my body, he gave me a telephone number.
When I regained consciousness. I was on my bed. I felt incredibly euphoric, as though I had been reborn. On the table next to me was a huge pile of drugs, but they no longer held any appeal.
Then the number the angel had given me popped into my head. I felt my hand was being guided when I dialled it.
It turned out to be a film producer friend I had last seen in Los
Angeles three years ago. We had lost touch and she had just moved back
to South Africa.
At the time, she was just the person I needed to see. She was very
spiritual and really helped me overcome my weaknesses.
People will say I was hallucinating — but hallucinations don’t give you
ex-directory numbers. From that day on, I felt protected by the angels
day and night. They guided me to people who could help cure my
addiction.
Now, I trust the angels’ advice in every aspect of my life. I take
notice when they advise me not to do business with certain peopIe.
I enjoy an inner peace which money can never buy.
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SUE ALEXANDER-CLARK,
36, the director of a large beauty salon in West London, lives in a
five-bedroom house in Ealing, with her husband, Stuart, 40, an artistic
director for Toni & Guy, and two children, Emily, eight, and
George, three. She says:
ON a night like any other, I
went to bed at 11pm, with my husband. When 1 woke at around 3am, I
found I had been crying in my sleep. Then, suddenly the room filled
with a beautiful golden light, almost like the sun was shining through
the window.
There, at its centre, my grand father William, then 91 and living In
Norfolk, was standing smiling at me, looking totally serene.
He talked to me telepathically, telling me that he was leaving the
physical world, but that he would be my guardian angel and always take
care of me in times of crisis.
As the vision faded, I began crying uncontrollabIy. Stuart woke and comforted me, saying I had just had a bad dream.
But ten minutes later my father called to tell us that my grand father
had just passed away. He had been a bit poorly, but we had no idea that
it was serious. That night 14 years ago had a profound effect on me.
I’ve never believed in angels or the afterlife, but whenever I doubted
the vision, I’d smell the carbolic soap, which my grand father had used
throughout his life. I have since learned he is not the only angel
looking out for me. Five years ago, I was working for a cosmetic
company setting up beauty salons all over the UK. After a particularly
long day in Barnsley, Yorkshire, I set out to drive home to London. I
phoned Stuart to say I would be home in about three-and-a-half hours.
An hour or so later on the M1, just as I began overtaking a large lorry
another lorry veered in front. I tried to brake, but a third lorry was
moving quickly up behind me. At this point, I heard a voice shouting:
‘Trust, you must trust.’ I took my hands off the steeling wheel, closed
my eyes and waited for the impact. Suddenly, I felt a warmth enveloping
me and there was total silence, a complete stillness and it was very
dark.
I thought I must be dead. I reached out and found the steering wheel.
Then I opened my eyes. I was still on the road, driving in darkness at
about 50 mph.
There was nothing else on the road — no lorries, no cars — even though
the road had been packed with traffic. I was severely shaken, but I was
too afraid to stop. At midnight, I arrived home. My husband was stunned
that it had taken me only two hours to complete a journey of 200 miles.
I believe the angels saved me. They really are capable of miracles.
There was nothing in the papers the next day about a lorry crash or any
sort of accident. I assumed the angels must have taken care of everyone
that night. Today I work with and trust my angel guides. Some are
people I know who have died, others are strangers who just want to
help. In times of great need I ask for their help, both for myself and
others.
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JACKI HUMPHRIES,
51, lives in a one-bedroom flat in Exeter and is a part-time
receptionist at a local radio station. She recently separated from her
husband of 35 years, Paul, 55. They have two children, Samantha, 29,
and Claire, 26. She says:
ALTHOUGH I never went to
church, I always believed there was some higher power protecting us
until February 1991, when my 17-year-old son Philip was killed in a car
accident and my faith went out of the window.
My husband and I were almost paralysed by our misery. We didn’t want to carry on living.
We ran a successful mobile phone business, but everythlng we had worked
for seemed pointless. We let the businesses run down and fell so deeply
into debt that we lost our home.
In December 1992, we could not face another Christmas at home as we all
missed Philip so badly, so, I booked a holiday to Fuertaventura with
the last of our money.
On December 27, I lay in the sun with Paul, trying not think too much
about how Philip would have loved It. I was on a sunlounger a couple of
feet from the swimming pool and the water sounded very soothing.
Through my closed eyelids, I sensed a shadow over the sun. Thinking a
cloud was passing over, I opened my eyes. There, standing in front of
me, was this beautiful seven-foot tall golden angel, with enormous
feathery, swan-like wings. He had blonde wavy hair and an expression of
total calm. He looked as real and as solid as a human being. Yet an
ethereal glow surrounded his body.
I began to cry, not because I was afraid, but because a feeling of
total, unconditional love poured into me and I wept and wept. Paul
gathered me up in his arms, thinking I was crying about Philip.
When I told him what I had seen, he didn’t laugh, and said that perhaps
the angel had been sent to help me. But I refused to believe it was
real.
Several weeks later I received a call from my local bookshop, saying my
latest order had arrived. I hadn’t ordered anything and when I went to
investigate, they handed me a book called Ask Your Angels.
I took it home, thinking what a weird coincidence, but I didn’t want to
read it. When I finally did open the book, a month or so later, I
couldn’t believe what I was reading. It described exactly my experience
— the angel appearing, my disbelief.
I relaxed then for the first time in two years. I felt my angel was
very close. I knew that I was going to be OK, and I’ve felt loved and
looked after ever since.
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