TALES FROM THE DONUT SHOP BY JULES A. STAATS

The high speed fall to the Roadway:

Angels are everywhere when we need them, that is if we want them.

Jay had lived in Syracuse New York for over a year. He had taken a position with a local cable company and was now living an uneventful life as an alarm salesman for the firm. His life had changed markedly from his former years as a police officer. No longer did he have to confront angry people, make arrests and write the many police reports. Still, life goes on and Jay had adjusted to his new life as a salesman. His many previous injuries suffered while a Deputy Sheriff were compatible with this line of work.

He had retired from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department in 1981. He was not ready to turn in his badge after 22 years but the County Doctors determined that his severe internal injuries and the likelihood that he would fully heal from this trauma was not very good.

It was ironic that after his retirement from L.A. County he had taken up an offer from a friend who had retired from his department and later ran for Sheriff of Santa Clara County. He applied, went through the background and polygraph tests and passed. His physical condition was not a factor as all he had to do was drive a car. Jay spent a full two years with the Santa Clara Sheriff’s department as an hourly paid transportation deputy with law enforcement status.

However, even the relatively cleaner air in the San Jose area was affecting his breathing. The tear gas and shootout situation in South San Gabriel California reminded him that this was the reason he had breathing trouble. Unfortunately, since few injured deputies even saw a doctor in those days of the 60’s there was no record of the lung damage at that time. County doctors could argue that his lung damage could be due to smoking, although Jay did not smoke. In that case, it could be then deemed to being allergic to the California smog.

He just had to live with this disability and after an invitation by his father-in-law, he and his wife decided to move to Syracuse New York. This city was a good distance from New York and there were no real issues with smog in this area. As a result he found the environment as far as air quality much cleaner, so he was able to breathe normally for the most part.

Jay and his wife had settled down and were living in an older but nicely kept trailer park in Liverpool New York, about eight miles from Syracuse. The single wide trailer that they had bought was old and cramped and it was even hard to change your mind due to the tight space. His wife had suggested that they consider buying a manufactured home which they could have delivered on a two acre property that his wife’s father had promised to them. So he and his wife Mary decided to go to Central Square New York to look at some of these manufactured homes.

They were greeted by a pleasant gentleman in his late thirties. As Jay shook hands with this salesman he noticed something special about the demeanor of this man. As it turned out he was a Minister who preached to a small church in town and worked for the manufactured home dealership during the week.

After looking at the interior of several of these homes, they all came back to the office to talk prices and maybe finances. Howard, the salesman in the course of checking his credit, he asked Jay what he did for a living. The reply was that he sold burglar alarm systems for a large cable company in Syracuse. Asked how he was doing; Jay replied that his previous Law Enforcement job had been a great foundation for the alarm business. He knew crooks very well, how they operated, how they broke into homes, and what they wanted to steal.

Strangely, Howard asked Jay directly if he had ever experienced a contact with someone he could not actually see with his own eyes? This was a completely unexpected non-relevant question causing Jay to feel a sudden chill at the back of his neck. His thoughts of his past rushed from the depths of his mind and he remembered being pushed out of the way of a panel truck that was trying to run him down and kill him. Whoever pushed Jay had to be struck by the truck, or the person passed through the truck without being injured. He recalled that there was no one in the alley as the truck sped away. There was absolutely no logic to explain what had happened to him. He had not forgotten the two hands that pushed him so violently against the patrol car that the wind was knocked out of him. The pain in his chest from the impact against the car was still vivid in his mind. Yes, he reflected; Without that violent push, he would have been struck by the truck and probably killed. He then told this salesman what he had experienced from this invisible power.

Howard did not reply for a long time, and only stared at Jay for a while then looked up at the ceiling. The silence was completely unexpected and he felt more than a little uneasy after relating that incident in San Jose, when he had worked just two years for Santa Clara County. Howard the salesman leaned back in his chair, still saying nothing. Finally his eyes turned again to Jay, his head slightly nodding in acceptance of what he had just said about this past experience.

Howard then had his own story to tell, now that he knew that there was someone sitting in front of him that would actually listen to him and not ridicule him about the events. Howard stated that about two years ago he was on Interstate 690 going north from Syracuse to the town of Central Square. He was driving a Ford pickup truck with a cab-over camper and his seven year old daughter was riding in the back. From his vantage point behind the wheel Howard could see his daughter most of the time in the rear view mirror due to adjacent windows that could be opened to pass through items or converse from the truck to the camper.

They were proceeding North and perhaps two miles from the Town when he felt the truck shake once while doing about 65 miles per hour on this freeway. Howard looked into his rear view mirror and felt immediate horror as he found that the rear camper door was now standing open and that his daughter was gone.

Howard related that he felt a surge of panic and a great foreboding of tragedy as he quickly pulled over to the right shoulder of the freeway and braked to a tire screeching stop. The speeding cars whizzed by and his heart skipped another beat as he realized that a child falling in to a freeway with so much traffic could be killed instantly by another speeding car even if the initial fall at 65 MPH did not end her life.

His gaze then locked on his daughter, standing to the right side of the freeway in the paved shoulder area. As he ran the 400 feet or so to reunite with his daughter, he noticed that her clothing was neither torn nor even dirty from a fall to the roadway and there was not a single mark or scratch on her.

Howard then related that he was understandably speechless for a long while. He finally regained his composure and asked his daughter what happened: His girl, Brenda, said that she had backed up to the camper door and leaned ever so slightly against it and the next thing she knew she was falling to the highway. Just before she would have struck the pavement she felt two strong hands clasp her shoulders and she was suspended in the air. She was then carried to the right shoulder of the freeway and gently set down on her feet.

Howard now had a question to ask of Jay and that is did he really believe that such a thing could happen? Jay replied that it happened to him, so he had absolutely no problem understanding the ramifications of this story. The pastor’s daughter had been saved by an Angel due to a direct order by God their Creator.

Howard added that as a minister he had heard from his parishioners many similar stories of such contacts, but this one actually happened to him and his daughter. Jay explained that in all probability his daughter had a purpose and she was therefore saved from death or even any injury.

How this rescue of a child falling to the highway at 65 miles per hour was done and Who were the rescuers is a mystery. When events like this happen, many people wonder if God touches people or perhaps, is this the work of Angels? Angels work for God, and God is with us, so it stands to reason the child was saved from injury or death directly by the Will and therefore Hands of the Omnipresent God, Creator of the Universe. We have a real problem understanding the word Omnipresent and Omnipotent as we can only understand our world in three dimensions.

Believing in Grace and His Protectionis always optional as we have free will. We can dismiss this incident and attempt to justify the good outcome as due to a mini tornado an updraft from the camper or something else. However, our optional relationship with God and His Subsequent Protection should be a no-brainer decision.

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