An Angel Held My Hand: Inspiring True Stories of the Afterlife. Jacky Newcomb

very well one night. I was actually awake for most of it. Then when I did finally get some sleep, when I woke up I couldn’t move my left side at all. That actually happened two mornings in a row and it made me think that if I had still been smoking, the paralysis might have been permanent.

      I guess it is a good idea to have a forceful angel after all!

      Healing Arms

      This next story is about another forceful angel. Patricia is from England and her angel appeared ‘in disguise’…

      My story begins nearly 30 years ago when I was 14. It was a difficult time in my life and for reasons I’m not still clear about I decided to try to end my life. Instead of going to school as usual I walked several miles from my home until I reached a small village with a little shop. From the shop I purchased a bottle of painkillers and proceeded to swallow the whole bottle of 50 with a can of coke.

      I now know that 10 can kill and that 50 was most certainly a lethal dose unless I received help pretty quickly.

      Afterwards I pondered on what to do whilst I was waiting to die. At this point I looked to the heavens and spoke to God. Although I wasn’t religious, I told God that I would soon be joining him and asked him to look after me.

      As I continued down the deserted village road a car pulled up beside me and the man inside asked me if I was alright. I replied that I was and continued on my way, but he was very persistent and asked if I would like a lift. Now at 14 I knew all about the dangers of getting in the cars of strangers, but I had the feeling that I could trust this man. What had I got to lose? I’d already planned on killing myself anyway!

      Once I was inside the car he told me that he was a doctor and was on his way to work. Then I knew I had to tell him what I had taken.

      Needless to say, he took me to hospital, where I had my stomach pumped and was put on a drip. Happily, I made a full recovery.

      Over the years I’ve often thought about my experience and wondered what the odds were that a doctor would be passing down that road at that particular time. Even more astonishing was the fact that he actually stopped the car and I accepted his lift!

      I suspect that someone was watching over me that day and it was most certainly not my time to go. I really believe that the doctor was my angel. Was he human? He must have been inspired by angels if he wasn’t one himself!

      Patricia had another strange experience following the very sad death of her brother-in-law, who died at the young age of 42. She wrote:

      His death came as a great shock to the whole family and made me question my own mortality. I began asking questions about the afterlife, which I’ve since discussed with my daughter. I started to reflect on my own experience of 30 years ago and wondered if my own guardian angel was still looking after me. I decided to ask my angel to give me some sort of sign.

      What happened next truly astounded me. I drifted off to sleep and then in the early hours of the morning I was woken by someone saying my name as clearly as anything. It felt as if my name had been spoken in a loud whisper right into my ear. Then I felt as though two gigantic arms were wrapping themselves around my whole body, just as they might have done if I were a small child. These arms cuddled me in a comforting way and then lifted me up the bed as if to make me more comfortable. All the time I was awake but my eyes remained shut.

      I felt the arms withdraw and then was able to open my eyes. I could see my husband was fast asleep with his back turned to me, so I knew it couldn’t have been him—and besides the arms had been huge. I was lying on my side and really wanted to look in the direction from which the voice and arms had come, but for some reason I could not.

      As the gradual realization of what had happened dawned on me, I realized that this was the sign I had asked for. I just lay awake for a while feeling incredibly calm and relaxed and then I fell asleep again.

      The next morning I excitedly told my husband what I had experienced and to be honest, I was convinced that he would think I had gone mad. Surprisingly, he accepted what I said, saying he believed me.

      A lot of people would say that it must have been a dream, but I know it was real. I heard that voice and felt those arms and just know it was my angel telling me that I was being looked after.

      Loving Visitors from the Other Side

      Here is another story from England. Laura dropped me an e-mail about her experiences. She wrote:

      I had several experiences as a child, but my most recent experience was very exciting. In August 2005 I was rushed into the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham because I had become very ill with auto-immune hepatitis. I can’t remember much about the time itself, but I remember that before I was diagnosed I knew I was very ill. Strangely, I kept seeing my grandmother and grandfather, who had crossed over years before.

      When I was finally diagnosed, they told me I was top priority for a liver transplant. I hadn’t realized the severity of the situation until they told my family that I would die if I didn’t get the transplant. We were all very shocked. Later my family told me that at one point I had been given only hours to live! At the time I had had no idea.

      That evening I sat in the bath, feeling very low and scared. Whilst I was in there, a white feather floated down in a shaft of light—lovely, but as this happened I vomited! I rang my sister-in-law and she calmed me and said the feather was a sign from my guardian angel that everything was going to be OK.