When I Needed An Angel
Those of you who know me know that I went through a very
rough (unexpected) divorce after 37 years of marriage. The divorce took only 1
year to go through, but the financial part took three 1/2 years! It was not
pleasant and there were many arguments/accusations along the way. When the house
was sold I moved to Charlottesville, Virginia to live with my son Mike until my
house here in Hardy, VA could be finished. While in Charlottesville more legal
papers with accusations from the man I had loved for 40 years came and I was to
respond. After a very sleepless night where I went over and over again his lies
and accusations I went to work at Cracker Barrel in Staunton, VA (on major RT
81) as hostess. I was having a hard time not crying all day and was thankful
that we were busy with people coming into the restaurant. (This was the Monday
after Thanksgiving.) I was taking a list names as people came to be seated and
looked up and God had sent me an "angel". There in front of me was my friend
Marge. She worked at Foster Wheeler in NJ and she lead a woman's prayer group.
We would have lunch together on Wednesdays and do our bible study. I looked up
and saw her and in front of about 40 people I stepped around the podium where I
was taking names and just embraced her and cried. Her daughter lives in
Lynchburg, VA and after visiting with her daughter for Thanksgiving she was on
her way home to NJ. There is a Cracker Barrel in Lynchburg and she could have
gone there to eat and then taken RT 29 north to go home to NJ, but instead drove
to interstate 81 at the time that I was there. (My hours of work and days
change each week so it is not that she knew I would be there.) God sent me an
angel to give me a hug!!
Gloria Jirouschek
I met my husband at the age of 19 years. From the first moment, we both felt like we had known each other for years. We married four years later and started a family. We knew our goals and worked hard toward them. We both grew up Catholic and were bringing our children up as such. Life was good.
In retrospect, I wonder if my husband was trying to prepare me for what was to come. However, at the time I found his statements absurd. Out of the blue he would say, “I won’t make it to my 40th birthday” or in reference to his life insurance “I’m worth more to you dead than alive.” He even told his best friend in front of me, “If anything ever happens to me, you’ll have a wife and three kids.”
By this time, we were married eight and a half years and our children were three and a half and two at twenty months. My husband was working the evening shift, the kids were asleep and I was exercising while waiting for him to come home. Unexpectedly I had an overwhelming sense of dread that came over me, as if my world just ended. How true that sensation turned out to be. Approximately thirty minutes later, the police came to my door. My husband, also a cop, was being medivaced to University Hospital in Newark after crashing his police vehicle. I never got to say “goodbye”, or “I love you” one more time. Life as I knew it definitely ended. All at once, I was a widow and single mom.
People came out of the woodwork initially to help me, sending diapers, toys and food for the kids. In an attempt to help, they told me “Vinny was in a better place” or “God wanted him since his work on earth was done.” But, what about what I wanted? How could God take someone so vital, so full of life, who had three small children to raise at the age of 39 years? I was so angry with God for doing this. I didn’t want to continue alone and every day stayed in bed and tried to make my life go away.
Someone gave me a plaque that said, “When God closes a door, he opens a window”. How true this turned out to be. My husband’s best friend, came over every day to make sure I ate at least one meal a day and to help with the kids. No matter how mean and rude I was to him, he kept coming. The pastor of my church also kept calling me until I agreed to meet with him. He told me that since I was so angry with God. I should tell him. I did not understand his meaning until he said, “if you were angry at a friend would you tell them? Isn’t God a good enough friend for you to tell your feelings to? It took me a long time to work through how I felt about this. I continued to stay away from church, but I began to pray again. My enlightenment did not occur overnight. But, I have learned that everything I experienced was designed to make me a better person and to deepen my spiritual connection with God. God has shown himself to me over and over again even when the worst seems to be happening.
I am not the same person I was eleven years ago when this occurred. My views on what is important in life are dramatically changed. I try to never miss an opportunity to tell loved ones how much they mean to me. Our plans for our life may not be the same ones God has for us. But, whatever lies ahead, I am sure that I will learn, grow and develop further in a positive manner. Also, I will be able to draw from my experiences to help someone else deal with their journey of life.