Print

Email story

Comment

Letter to the editor

Guest Column

As death approached, true angels appeared

By LESTER ARADI, Largo Police Chief
Published November 11, 2007

There are angels among us. I have proof positive that there are.

A short time ago, my wife and I received an emergency call that her father, who was terminally ill, had been rushed to the hospital, and we were told that he was not expected to live much longer. We grabbed the first available flight back to Illinois and went straight to the hospital.

When we arrived, he was in dire straits but still holding on. Our family made arrangements to bring him home, under hospice care, so that he might spend his remaining days in the comfort of his own home with his family members around him.

Within the next few days, he made a slight recovery, to the point that he could recognize his loved ones and communicate with them, but by the fourth day he had slipped back a little bit.

That evening we were gathered around him in the living room when we noticed a white dove appear in the transom window above the front door facing his hospital bed, which was located in the living room. The dove, rarely seen in that area, stayed perched in the window above my father-in-law and did not leave until after sunup the next morning.

I know what you are thinking. You're thinking that I am making some spiritual reference to a white dove watching over a dying man, looking ahead to his journey to heaven. I won't deny that this experience did send cold shivers down my body, and I did take the appearance as a sign of some sort, but the dove is not the proof of angels among us that I am sharing with you.

The real angels I saw appear before me during this time were the hospice workers of Northeastern Illinois Hospice. They are the same angels that others before me have witnessed, here in Pinellas County and all around this country every day.

Only true angels would work in such a calling, giving so much of themselves to families facing the worst episodes of their lives, the loss of a loved one.

Only true angels would give a piece of their emotional selves to help shield families from the emotional toll they face.

Only true angels would stroke the hair, clean the body and hold the hand of a dying person who is unknown to them.

People like them don't just appear. They are sent to us in a very special way, the same as that dove.

So, to all the angels who are out there, working in the truest heavenly calling there could possibly be, I salute you.

And Russell Henry, may God bring you peace and watch over you.

Lester Aradi is Largo's police chief.

[Last modified November 10, 2007, 20:35:24]