In the Arms of the Angels you Pay It Forward

Quote from current book:

“Make friends with an angel”, he said
“Pardon me,” I shouted.
“Make friends with an angel if you ever get the chance.”
“How do you find one?”
“It’s hard, they come in many disguises.”

From: Finding Laura Buggs by Stanley Gordon West

Recently Tink talked about influential people. She mentioned the stranger in Subway. Maybe he was one of her angels. Those people that cross your path briefly but change it forever.

I once had a friend in high school that was an artist. He was a year older than me, a very private individual and the only person I ever met whose soul didn’t seem quite of the same stuff as the rest of us. He seemed ancient rather than a youthful 18. And he seemed so wise beyond his years. I had been out driving with a couple of friends all over the back roads of New Jersey. We randomly turned down country roads with no destination in mind. Thankfully it is a very small state and no matter how lost you get you can always find your way home. So, we were out in the middle of nowhere and the car broke down. The road was not even wide enough for two cars. And we hadn’t seen a house in miles. This was pre-cellular days so we had no way to call for help. We were looking at a long walk in the dead of night. Then headlights appeared up the road. And we thought great, someone can at least give us a ride to a phone. The car stopped and it looked strangely familiar but that wasn’t possible since we knew we were several hours from home. Only as it turns out we did know the car and we knew the person who had come to our aid. It was him. The lone artist. I know we all had the deer in the headlights expression on our faces because how could he possibly have known. We are talking a very small needle in a very large haystack. We asked him what the heck he was doing out here and he said he knew we needed help. I have to admit that I should have wet myself at this point but at the time it seemed right. Like it was the most natural thing to have happen. But years later when I think about this I get chills.

There is an idea out there in the world (and a very good movie I might add) called “Pay it Forward”. If someone does something nice for you don’t do it back to them, pass on the kind act to someone new.

Not long after this incident I got my chance to pay it forward:

I was driving a friend of mine back to his house. He lived 45 minutes away from me but in Jersey this was not unusual. Our high school had a student population that came from a radius of about 50 miles. So you could drive almost two hours to go from one friend’s house to another. For whatever reason I drove very slowly, 15 miles or so under the speed limit. I never do that but for some unknown reason that night I chose to. We came around a blind corner and my headlights swept across a car that was flipped over in the ditch, the wheels still turning. We got out of the car and ran over to help. The two passengers were still inside. One was unconscious but breathing. The other was crying.
I knew the girl that was crying. We worked together. While my friend stayed with the people in the car I ran to the closest house. I didn’t know the area at all so I wasn’t sure what sort of response I would get knocking on doors in the middle of the night but I had to call for help. I rang the doorbell and the person that opened it was someone else I worked with. We stared at each other in mild shock. We weren’t friends outside of work so this was not something I expected in a million years. I told her what happened and she called 911. Then she came down with me to the car. Because there was no gas leaking and we didn’t want to cause any further injury we sat holding hands with the girl in the car. Help was actually quick to arrive. And the rescue squad was able to remove them with the proper equipment, braces, and boards. The girl I knew in the wreck wouldn’t let go of my hand so they let me ride with her in the ambulance. I stayed with her until her mom was able to get out to the hospital. Both of the people in the car survived with very minor injuries. I don’t think I ever really saw that girl much after either. It was the end of our senior year and I was heading west. But it’s a night I have never forgotten, all the seemingly unrelated things that came together spook me to this day.