Six years after we were married, my 29-year-old husband was fighting leukemia. Pain dulled Chris' blue eyes; he was barely able to move without help. Doctors offered little hope, and for months I slept on a cot alongside his bed at the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. At 3:00 a.m., I was shaken awake by an alarmed nurse.<\/p>\n
“We can’t find Chris!” she exclaimed.<\/p>\n
My eyes darted to his bed. The sheet was turned back; the bed empty. How? I jumped up and raced past the nurses’ station outside the room, then ran down the hall. As I passed the glass-paneled chapel door, I glimpsed Chris sitting inside with someone. I burst in, crying, “Chris, we were so worried….”<\/p>\n
He turned and smiled. “I’m fine,” he said.<\/p>\n
I stared at the young man who sat with him. His skin was smooth and clear, and he had short white hair. He wore exactly the type of clothes Chris liked: checked flannel shirt, crisp Levi’s, and lace-up work boots. The young man looked up at me and my heart caught. As I stared into his crystal-blue eyes, I felt stunned.<\/p>\n
Chris broke the spell. “Melissa, please leave us,” he asked. “I’m okay. I’ll be back.”<\/p>\n
After reporting Chris' whereabouts (no one else in that security-tight hospital had seen his visitor), I went back to our room. About a half hour later Chris returned exhilarated, merrily rolling his IV pole–walking on his own! And he didn’t look sick anymore.<\/p>\n
“Who was that man?” I gasped, not sure what to ask first. “You’ll never believe it.” He grinned. “It was an angel–my guardian angel.”<\/p>\n
Chris sat down on the bed. “I awoke with an overpowering urge to go to the chapel,” he explained, “and I was able to walk there easily. As I knelt at the cross I heard a voice behind me, and I turned to find him standing there. He asked if there was anything I wanted to be forgiven for. I’ve always hated my stepfather. The angel said I was forgiven, and you know, for the first time, the hatred I had harbored for so long was truly gone. Then I told him I was worried about leaving you. He said you would be fine, that all my prayers were answered.”<\/p>\n
The next day with Chris was unbelievable. He ate well and visited patients on our floor, buoying their spirits. I thought he was healed.<\/p>\n
Two days later Chris died. But in a very real sense I know that he had been healed–healed of fear and pain, ready to go on to new life. And when my time comes, I’ll be ready too.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Six years after we were married, my 29-year-old husband was fighting leukemia. Pain dulled Chris' blue eyes; he was barely able to move without help. Doctors offered little hope, and for months I slept on a cot alongside his bed at the M. D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston. At 3:00 a.m., I was shaken […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":61,"featured_media":25819,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[152],"tags":[170,156,180,158,51,212,72,80],"ppma_author":[2365],"class_list":["post-14218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-angels","tag-angel-sightings","tag-death","tag-guardian-angel","tag-heavenly-angels","tag-inspirational-stories","tag-leukemia","tag-stories-of-faith","tag-stories-of-hope"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n