Guardian Angels?

[oscarsear]

Had a visit with an old friend. Expectedly we discussed old times. There was one occasion that some unknown hand saved both our derriere's. I had a 'cool' Uncle. Y'know the one that allowed you access to an accelerated adulthood. This Uncle took my cousin, my friend and myself to Mexico, to fish. We were around 16 or 17 and in the absence of real adult supervision he afforded us to partake of the cerveza. During the day all was fine and somewhat contained. Nighttime was different. We were camping down by Rosarita Beach and there may have been a lot to do there, but we drank cerveza. After lights-out and late in the night, it became 'urgent' urine time for my friend and myself. We exited our canvass abode and still being 'tipsy' waltzed in the dark some distance, unzipped and proceeded our deeds. Being young men we both noticed a missing sound - the drubbing sound of a strong urine stream pounding the earth. It was then that we turned on the flashlight. We were at the edge of a cliff - I mean the very brink of a precipice so steep that the light beam illuminated nothing but black sky. Was it instinct? Blind luck? One tiny step further and that would have been a really bad night. We did not even know a cliff was there as we had just arrived that evening. ---Other stories--- ?

[dtel]

Luck or guardian angel either way you were one step away from both of them.

And yes many times I have been very lucky for no apparent reason.

One story

We had gone camping in a remote campground and after setting everything up i walked off to where there was a small stream. Thinking we might swim in it one day to cool off I knelt down on the edge and leaned over to feel if it was cold.

I turned my head and almost had it on the ground trying to reach the water, looking to the side I seen something I missed, a rattlesnake coiled up rattling ready to strike about a foot from my face. I froze not knowing what to do and a second later it jumped into the water and was gone. I just sat there in shock not believing what happened and how lucky i was, I really don't know how I got that close to begin with without seeing or hearing him ?

[j-malotky]

My sister has a story that I can share.

My sister left her house to go “somewhere”
a few minuets before my 17-year-old nephew (her son) was leaving to
go to practice. A few miles down the road, she realized she forgot
something, turned around and headed back home. On her way back, she
thought to herself that is was odd that she did not pass her son who
should have left the house already. She then came up onto an
accident scene and to her horror; there was his car, off the road
down a steep hilly slope and was smashed into a tree!!! Any mother’s
worst fear!! She had arrived at the scene at about the same time the
police arrived, no ambulances yet, and there were one or two other
civilians on their way down to the stranded car below. Her son was
still in the car.

As she left her car, totally in a state
of panic, she was approached by a man that she described as a mid 60
year old, balding and slightly overweight in a t-shirt and shorts.
He put his arm around her and told her that her son had fallen asleep
at the wheel. That he was OK and not hurt. He told her that he was
right behind him and saw him swerve and leave the road, re assuring
her that he was OK.

Her focus stayed on the rescue workers
as they got her son out of the car and eventually she lost contact
with the old man who was comforting her.

Later, as the police talked to her
about the accident, they told her that if he had not hit that tree,
he would have gone over the cliff below and surely would have died.
My sister told the police about the man who was behind her son and
what he said. The police looked puzzled, pointed to a woman and told
her, that that woman was in the car behind her sons car. They then
pointed to a younger man and said, he was in the car behind her.
They did not see an older man at the scene at all!

My sister realized then that the man
never said he was in THE car behind him, she just assumed that! And
that it was odd that he said her son was OK before anyone had reached
the car. She realized he must have been a guardian angel and was
actually behind him in his car, protecting him from going over the
cliff by hitting the tree in a way to damage the car and not him.
And finally he picked a father figure form to comfort her in her most
scared moment of her life.

Yes, Guardian Angels walk among us all the time.

JM

[Daddy Dee]

wow gentlemen. thank you for sharing these experiences.

[oscarsear]

Sort of makes ya wonder how many times you've had a brush with catastrophe and for whatever reason, did not recognize the event. On the night we blindly pissed off of a 200 foot cliff if we had just finished up and not bothered to examine the situation we may never have understood our fortunes or that we were literally inches from serious injury or worse. I have witnessed serious car accidents to my front and watched them in my rear view mirror. I got nailed once. Probably not my guardian angels fault. My boss was with me in the car and no doubt it was his bad karma that put me in peril.

[oldtimer]

I've had several some of which I'll take the fifth on. Once in my youth I skidded and crashed on my bicycle right in front of a car which managed to just stop in time before crushing me with it's tires. Man was I shaking after that---but physically unharmed. I figure in some ways I have been very lucky or put here for a purpose. Of course that purpose may have happened beyond my knowledge so there's always a next time?

[jacksonbart]

Was in NOLA, they said per my wife's palm that I was an Hells Angel.

[Daddy Dee]

One other aspect of this that gives me pause is this advice:

Do not neglect to show hospitality to strangers, for thereby some have
entertained angels unawares.

[dtel]

I like that Daddy Dee.

just wanted to bring this back up hoping someone else would have a story .

I don't know if it's been Guardian Angles or just dumb luck, I either have an angel or have been very lucky, or both ?

Another story

A few summers ago we went to Panama City Fla for a few days. There is this place there that rents pontoon boats for the day to use in the back bays which we always rent being easily the best day of the trip. You can drive the boat for miles and stop anywhere to swim or snorkel for the whole day bringing food and drinks.

Well there is this island which you can go to called Shell Island which is a state park, you park the boat on the bay side and walk across the island a few hundred feet to the Gulf side. Well after snorkeling and looking at Dolphins we went to the island and was parking the boat, really just anchoring a little off the beach so if the tide goes out your not stuck.

About the time we we were parking we noticed the sky was becoming black in the distance. We decided since this island has no structures and there was no way to make it all the way back to the dock we probably should just stay there. The next question was lightning, should we just stay on the boat or get off on land, well the boat is all aluminum so we thought it might be best to go on shore ?

Not positive the storm would make it to where we were, we decided to walk to the other side of the island, most of us at least. There were two forum members with us Jay and Michael, Jay decided to stay on the boat the rest of us went across this island.

Well the storm got much much worse almost non stop lightning. So here we are on the edge of an island and the Gulf with a bad lightning storm, after thinking a little we decided to get in the water and get as low as we could, just our heads sticking out. We only thought that the water was safer because the island was probably 5' higher than the water and also being struck. Right or wrong we had to do something because it was bad. It was about as bad a lightning storm as I have ever seen, and it lasted probably 45 minuets nonstop.

Some how we were OK, and so was Jay who stayed on the boat. The sky was completely black and almost nonstop lightning all around us and really close many many times, much closer than I ever care to be again.

Christy was extremely scared and our daughter and grandson kept asking me if we were going to be alright, I told her "sure it's going to be alright" when really I had NO idea and was thinking we very well could be toast as close as the lightning was striking. I would bet Michael and I were not looking very positive either [:|] but what could we do we were stuck, but VERY lucky for some reason ?

Ask any of them I can guaranty you they will never forget it, I can't. [li]

[dtel]

Despite that one 45 min experience it's a great place especially if you have more than just a couple of people with you.

If you ever find yourself going to Panama city and would like a great time out on the water this is the way to go. We have done this probably 5-6 times now and never had any problems and the owners are really nice. get a group together, bring food and drinks and go have fun. You drive the boat with your group where you want (except the gulf), it not a tour with a driver and 10 people are the max on the 24' boat, so it's not overcrowded and plenty of seats.

No commission I'm just a happy customer who found the place by accident and it's been great

http://shellislandtours.com/

A map of the back bays to give you an idea of how big the bays are.

[Daddy Dee]

dtel,

thanks for posting. that sounds most frightening with the black sky and non stop and close lightning. i mean, really frightening.

gives 'happy to be here' all new meaning. glad you guys are ok. whoah.

[dtel]

Daddy D you know how thunderstorms can be in the south and this was as bad as any I had ever seen, we were just happy to be alive.

[BigStewMan]

i'm glad you all survived your close calls. With my crazy life, i could join the ranks of the elite post count by telling all my close calls. My brother always tells me "God protects the ignorant." I'm living proof that He does. Steve

[dtel]

I know how you feel, I will take his protection any way i can get it.

You really do need a Guardian Angel, or you do have one and it would have been alot worse without ?

Or you just scared the poor thing off ?

[sputnik]

Wile E Coyote has been my lifelong role model. I've had plenty of near misses. Nearly drowned when I was five. Kicked in the head by a horse when I was nine. Bit by a rattlesnake when I was sixteen. In my twenties, I wrapped a whitewater canoe around a log and luckily didn't didn't get pinned, I worked with explosives and rode two avalanches when I was ski patrolling, I took a screamer of a fall rock climbing, and I walked away from a bad wreck test driving a truck with my girlfriend. Later, I was just kissed by a speeding limo in Hong Kong when, out of habit, I looked the wrong way before crossing a busy street - they drive on the left side there. I'm not especially bright so there's lots more.

I've pulled many more stupid stunts but was able to dodge the bullet each time. Can't really say if there was a guardian angel involved in those near misses but I do have a guardian angel. She couldn't prevent my worst accident but she did resurrect me.

As some here know, I had a bad motorcycle wreck just over five years ago. I don't know if I ever posted the details here before so I hope this isn't a boring repeat. I took the day off from work on a beautiful fall day to take a ride down to Yellowstone on my freshly modded Ducati. Like I said, I’ve had a lot of close calls but this was the first time that I ever really had to suffer serious consequences. I’m still not quite sure what happened but my injuries included a shattered pelvis (open book pelvic fracture), a perforated bladder, and a collapsed lung. I would’ve been instantly dead if I weren't wearing good gear – the front and sides of my full-face helmet were badly gashed. I very nearly died because of a split second lapse but my wife suffered more than I did.

Kathy had just gotten home from work when she got the call about my wreck. By the time she drove the 30 miles to the Livingston hospital she was able to see me come in on the ambulance. She saw them bringing in boxes of blood and the rush of activity. I was completely out but she held my hand and talked me through it as the ER docs tried to stabilize my condition. We knew some of the firefighters and paramedics that brought me in and she knew from their behavior that I was in trouble. She watched them load me onto a life flight helicopter to go to a more advanced hospital. She couldn’t ride along on the helicopter so she had to drive for three hours in the dark to Billings, not knowing if I’d be alive when she got there.

She was told by the doctors in Billings that I was “pretty messed up” with severe internal bleeding and they couldn’t do anything or even know how badly I was injured until the bleeding was under control. They weren’t even sure if they could stop the bleeding. They told her not to leave the hospital – just in case. She spent the rest of that night in the hospital chapel with her best friend. Early the next morning, she overcame her fears and checked in the ICU to find that I was gone. To her relief, they had just taken me out to do some imaging.

Three days of unconsciousness later, I was finally stable enough for the first of six operations that were to occur over the next year. After a very interesting near-death vision, I woke up in the ICU and Kathy was holding my hand and I could not believe that I’d been in a wreck until she pointed out that I was on a respirator, wearing a neck brace with tubes sticking out my neck and chest. I had no memory of the wreck and she told me how serious it was but also that I’d be OK in the long run. She then just talked about the places we’d traveled as I fell asleep again.

She took the first two months off from work to take care of me.
She stayed in a hotel to be with me during my three-week hospital stay
She again stayed in a hotel to be with me during the next two weeks of rehab.
She watched me swell up with over 60 pounds of fluid weight gain.
She helped me roll onto my stomach for the first time in four weeks after the wreck.
She rearranged our house to accommodate my hospital bed and my wheelchair when I was finally able come home.
She woke up to check on me through each night.
She changed my dressings and cleaned the wounds.
She massaged and ace wrapped my legs every night to prevent clots.
She organized and administered the numerous meds I had to take.
She shoveled the deep snow off our deck so that she could roll me in my wheelchair down the ramp that the guys on the fire department made so I could get to countless doctors and therapists appointments.
She loaded me into the truck each time I had to go somewhere and hefted the wheelchair into the back.
She drove me over 150 miles each way for some of the appointments.
She spent countless hours in waiting rooms.
She helped me with my physical therapy and stretching.
She emptied my catheter urine bag multiple times a day.
She gave me sponge baths every day and cleaned around my catheter. Note that my junk was badly swollen and gross looking as well – imagine a fat potato sticking out of a softball.
She emptied the urine bottles that I had to use for months once the catheter was removed about six weeks after my wreck.
She helped me get onto the bedside commode and, because my arm was in a cast and I was unable to bend, she wiped me and emptied the pot when I was done.
She gave me enemas because I was so badly constipated from the pain meds.
She drove me to the ER as I was screaming in pain and passing out because a MRSA infection was forcing the steel plates and screws from my pelvis.
She went pale when she learned about MRSA.
She waited through more surgeries that were needed because of the infection that probably resulted from the first operation that saved my life.
She helped me with IVs that I now needed twice a day to fight the MRSA infection.
She made several trips to the pharmacy to pick up all of my meds including forking out $4,500 for a one-month supply of antibiotic for MRSA when the IVs weren’t effective.
She went back to work and still did everything around the house.
She never complained about money.
She never complained about forgoing any kind of sex life for so long.
Even though I had a home nurse coming in, she set me up each morning before she went to work. It broke her heart to leave me home alone in my wheelchair.
On her way to work, she would cry as she drove.
She was constantly positive and strong - when things were bad, she never let me see her cry.
She did let me see her cry when she saw me take my first feeble steps again five months after the wreck.
She never blamed me for anything.
She's my guardian angel and she's pretty hot too.

[BigStewMan]

glad you survived Sputnik, and glad that you have Kathy in your life. You're a very lucky man. I left my impression on the front of a 2009 Toyota Tundra a few years ago. Never saw it coming...and the driver said he never saw me. the only reason he stopped was because he felt like he had just hit something. Thank God that he got out and looked, it was dark and if he would have pulled forward he would have ran right over me. Wasn't hurt nearly as bad as you. Four ribs completely broken, two bones in my foot, and both shoulders are now all jacked up. But, could easily have been killed...the truck had quite a few pounds on me. I was in the backseat of a 1964 Chevy Nova that was t-boned by a semi. Everyone in the front seat died. Age 9, was pulled out of a swimming pool before drowning. Fun at my house was taking pellets out of a shotgun shell, putting the shell back in the shotgun and shooting it in the house with the lights out (to watch the flame. Blind faith that my friends were getting all the pellets out), jumped out of the back of pickup truck when i was a kid, thinking that i could run alongside the truck and surprise my uncle (the driver)....hit the ground pretty hard and bled and lost some skin; when i was five i jumped out of our loft holding onto the feet of a dove--i thought that i'd fly around the house with the bird...we both landed pretty hard. FIve minutes after leaving a street corner at midnight, someone drove by and fired 20 shots into the crowd. My first job was setting up mobile homes. We would take an electrical cord with the end cut off and connect the wires to the power box to get electricity for our power tools. First time i was to be the one to "get us some juice" i was about an inch away from sticking the blade of my buck knife in the power box to spread these two brackets apart to put the cord wires in, my brother in law yells from the roof "use a screwdriver with an insulated handle not your knife" thank God for his impatience or i'd be a pile of dust right now. Took LSD on my way to the airport (by the way, if you're going to detroit don't get in the long line for korean airlines or whatever that airline is called). Ate a bunch of Magic Mushrooms and slept for four months (or so i thought). found a rifle in my grandfathers barn, covered in spider webs. Pointed it at my brother from near point blank range. Was about to pull the trigger thinking it wasn't a working gun when I hear my grandfather say "be careful, that things loaded." For some unknown, reason he wanted to show my dad something that was in the barn and thank God, got their not a second too soon. Nearly stabbed my Dad late one night because i thought he was a burgler (funny thing was that he was cop) i didn't know he was taking a shower in the back bathroom. I was watching tv and heard someone in the back of the house. Thinking that everyone was i bed, i knew it was an intruder, and being the last line of defense, it was up to me to save my family. I stood with knife in hand waiting for the intruder to round the corner. If i would have stabbed him, i think i would have been grounded for a while. Was on a northwest flight that had to make an emergency landing. Then there was the time that i got a pretty bad paper cut at work. took an obscene amount of drugs in my younger days that involve some stories and close calls that i care not to write about. Yeah, more than a few moments where i've had to stop and say "steve...what were you thinking?" but, i'm lucky, not all of my friends survived those crazy days.

[germerikan]

I am not a religious man but I would say yes.

6 years ago Wife and I were on the way to visit my Mom in the states. She was feeling a little queasy but we thought since it was so early and we did not wake up well. As we were waiting for the flight She turned white and said I am not feeling good. So we decided to go and get her blood pressure checked. On the way to the drug store she looked at me with big eyes and said "Schatzie" (Darling) and would have landed on her face if I did not catch her. Within seconds she turned blue and I screamed for help.

Seconds later (although it felt like minutes) 2 guards 20 feet away radioed for help, 2 firemen who where checking the fire alarms out of schedule came racing with a portable ICD unit and 30 seconds after that a Doctor on her way on vacation to Mexico and a RN were standing there and started CPR. I was a soldier and trained but could not do anything except hold her hand and beg her not to leave me. It took 5 minutes for the paramedics to get there which are stationed at the airport where the fight for her life started. Her heart had spasms and beat over 300/m and all of the blood was pumped out and none in.

3 Days of induced coma an implanted ICD and rehab later I still have her.

30 minutes later we would have been on the plane to US and I would have lost her. When everyone did not react as fast as they did I would have lost her or at least brain damage.

One thing we are sad about is we never found out who the Doctor or Nurse were to thank them.

I never play the lotto any more, all of my luck was spent on that day and I am grateful for it.

[sputnik]

Well Steve, I finally encountered someone more dangerous to be around than me. Hope the dove survived OK. Germarikan, very lucky to be in a place where EMS response could happen so quickly - had that happened on the plane or even at home, it could be a much sadder story.

I'm a volunteer firefighter and we got a late night page to a MVA last month involving a semi that went off the freeway, slid down the embankment across the railroad tracks, and left the cab hanging over the river with the driver trapped inside...........oh yeah, and there was a train coming.

That's where the train stopped. Driver was OK and not pinned but we had to cut the windshield to pull him out over the river bank. He was strapped to a backboard so he never got to see the scene and know how lucky he was, all things considered.

[Daddy Dee]

you gentlemen have shared some pretty amazing stories. just want to say thanks. otherwise i'm mostly speechless. just listening and thinking. trying to take it all in.

[Jay481985]

I like that Daddy Dee.

just wanted to bring this back up hoping someone else would have a story .

I don't know if it's been Guardian Angles or just dumb luck, I either have an angel or have been very lucky, or both ?

Another story

A few summers ago we went to Panama City Fla for a few days. There is this place there that rents pontoon boats for the day to use in the back bays which we always rent being easily the best day of the trip. You can drive the boat for miles and stop anywhere to swim or snorkel for the whole day bringing food and drinks.

Well there is this island which you can go to called Shell Island which is a state park, you park the boat on the bay side and walk across the island a few hundred feet to the Gulf side. Well after snorkeling and looking at Dolphins we went to the island and was parking the boat, really just anchoring a little off the beach so if the tide goes out your not stuck.

About the time we we were parking we noticed the sky was becoming black in the distance. We decided since this island has no structures and there was no way to make it all the way back to the dock we probably should just stay there. The next question was lightning, should we just stay on the boat or get off on land, well the boat is all aluminum so we thought it might be best to go on shore ?

Not positive the storm would make it to where we were, we decided to walk to the other side of the island, most of us at least. There were two forum members with us Jay and Michael, Jay decided to stay on the boat the rest of us went across this island.

Well the storm got much much worse almost non stop lightning. So here we are on the edge of an island and the Gulf with a bad lightning storm, after thinking a little we decided to get in the water and get as low as we could, just our heads sticking out. We only thought that the water was safer because the island was probably 5' higher than the water and also being struck. Right or wrong we had to do something because it was bad. It was about as bad a lightning storm as I have ever seen, and it lasted probably 45 minuets nonstop.

Some how we were OK, and so was Jay who stayed on the boat. The sky was completely black and almost nonstop lightning all around us and really close many many times, much closer than I ever care to be again.

Christy was extremely scared and our daughter and grandson kept asking me if we were going to be alright, I told her "sure it's going to be alright" when really I had NO idea and was thinking we very well could be toast as close as the lightning was striking. I would bet Michael and I were not looking very positive either but what could we do we were stuck, but VERY lucky for some reason ?

Ask any of them I can guaranty you they will never forget it, I can't.

I got a pretty bad sunburn that time so I didn't feel very much like moving. I swear I felt like I had a fever the sunburn was that bad. And yep I was on the boat with Christy's friend. The rain hurt thats how fast and much it was dropping (It was also freezing). She and I hid under some beach towels and all I could think was okay where was the rest of the family? Are they okay? And I am on this god damn Aluminum pontoon boat that is rocking and bobbing with lightning so close I am deaf and could literally smell the static from the last lightning strike!