Have You Named Your Angel?

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November 29, 2008

Like many of us, Kathy Borniger, a school nurse in Wichita, Kansas, wears an angel pin. It’s a symbol of something that she believes in, just like our American flag. “I have always found it comforting to know that God loves us so much that He would send angels to guide and protect us,” she says. “I have felt the presence of angels in my life on several occasions, and there were probably more when I wasn’t paying attention.” The one that stands out most in Kathy’s mind happened about six years ago.

Kathy’s mother had been to her physician, and he had found a spot on her lung, which appeared to be cancer. The entire family was shaken. Kathy’s sister drove in from Phoenix, and the family prepared themselves for possible bad news. After several tests seemed to confirm the diagnosis, the doctor scheduled surgery.

Kathy’s sister had to return to Arizona due to obligations there, but was not looking forward to the long solitary drive from Wichita to Phoenix. She asked Kathy to ride with her and then fly back to Wichita, using the remaining half of a ticket which her husband had left over from a previous trip to Phoenix. When Kathy phoned the airlines to make sure this procedure was acceptable, however, she received several contradictory responses. “No, it’s impossible to use that ticket for yourself,” one representative told her. Said another, “You can use it but by the time you pay all the penalties and fees, you might just as well buy a new ticket.” The last word she received was “Well, go ahead, but come to our offices in Tempe, when you get here, and we’ll see what we can do but there will be extra charges.” Kathy was not working full time, and with three children, money was tight. Her husband encouraged her to go, however, and they would figure out the finances later.

“There are times in our lives when we feel so worried, weary and frightened that we would just like to grasp SOMETHING and have it work out smoothly,” Kathy says. “It did not look like this was going to be one of those times. I was feeling very intimidated and OLD. I was sure that I would be met in Tempe with resistance but ‘resistance’ would be wearing spiked heels, blond hair, and lip gloss and would be younger than most of my husband’s underwear!! And I would look stupid and doddering. (You could say that I really was obsessing on this.)”

Nonetheless, her sister needed her, so the two drove from Wichita to Phoenix, praying along the way for their mother’s health. The day after they arrived, Kathy was to appear at the Tempe airlines offices. “As I lay in bed that morning, trying to gather my courage, I prayed to my guardian angel Izabel, (I call her Izzy),” says Kathy. “I asked her to please speak to the guardian angels of the people I’d be meeting at the airlines office, to soften their hearts.” (Pope John XXIII was known for doing this very thing.) “I also asked Izzy to check in with my mother’s guardian angel and to please keep Mom safe and well. I put on my guardian angel pin and off we went.”

Security at the airlines was very tight and as Kathy entered the building, an armed guard met her and asked numerous questions. There were several “Ms. Blond High Heels With Lip Gloss” too, floating from office to office, and Kathy did indeed feel intimidated by their confident attitudes. Touching her angel pin, she reminded Izzy of her needs.

“After a few minutes I heard a lovely ‘grandmotherly’ voice call me by name into her office,” Kathy says. “She was a petite woman with a few gray hairs (just like me) and a welcoming smile. She said her name was Rose and asked how she could help me.” Kathy explained the situation.

“Why that’s no problem,” Rose assured her. “We can change your ticket, and there’ll be no charge.” Tears welled in Kathy’s eyes. The whole thing had been so simple—why had she dreaded it? The two women visited for awhile, and as Rose presented Kathy with the new ticket, she pulled aside her own cardigan. “I like your angel pin,” Rose said, smiling. Kathy was astonished. Rose was wearing three angel pins on her blouse.

Kathy enjoyed a few days in Phoenix with her sister, then flew home. She was beginning to realize that she had been in the presence of angels ever since this family situation had begun, and she had a hunch that everything would work out just fine.

“My mother had her surgery a few days later,” Kathy says. “There was no sign of cancer. Actually the pathology report showed the lesion to be an encapsulated area of Valley Fever which Mom had probably picked up during one of her visits to Phoenix.”

Was it a miracle? Kathy will never know for sure. But were angels near? She has no doubt.