Story of the Week, January 9, 2010, My Valentine
When Valentine’s Day approaches, we think of romantic love. But that’s not the only kind, as Alice Hennig would point out. She was seventeen when her family moved to a new area in Edmonton, Alberta. One cold Sunday afternoon in February, her parents were entertaining some relatives, and Alice decided to visit a friend from the old neighborhood. “This involved taking two buses on routes I wasn’t familiar with,” she says, “so I was a little nervous. But I got to my friend’s house with no trouble, and we had an enjoyable time.”
By the time Alice left to return home, it was starting to get dark. More confident now, she hopped on the first bus, and got off at the University where she had to transfer to the second one. She waited an hour-and-a-half, as snow started to fall, but the second bus never came. She didn’t know then that on Sundays, the last bus on that route came at 4 p.m. She had missed it completely.
“It was getting very windy, and drifts were making streets treacherous,” Alice says. “Walking home was out of the question because it was too far. I went to the Education building behind me,and was glad to find that the front door was still open. Now I could warm up, and call my dad to come and get me.”
However, that was a problem too. Alice’s dad didn’t always come to his children’s rescues. “you got yourself into this, so you can get yourself out,” he would tell them. And he would probably be angry that she interrupted her parents’ afternoon get-together. She hated it when he got mad… But what else could she do?
Cell phones were not available yet. Instead Alice searched in the deserted Education building for a pay phone. Her father had never been on the university campus—how was she going to direct him, if he agreed to come? She didn’t even have the address of this building. And where was everyone? She had walked down several corridors and heard no noise of any kind. She turned yet another corner—and there was a bank of pay phones! Relieved, Alice started searching her pockets for change. She couldn’t believe it! She had NO coins, only a transfer ticket for the bus. Now what? “Fear gripped me,” Alice says. “It was completely dark outside by now. I broke out in a sweat and started to pray, begging God for his help.” Would she have to spend the night in this building, huddled in a corner? Her parents would be worried sick when she didn’t come home. A dime! That’s all she needed, but it seemed impossible.
Alice prayed again, and had just started to cry when out of nowhere—-”and I mean nowhere!” she says—a young handsome man approached her. He was dressed in jeans, a long sleeve shirt and woolen vest. No coat in this storm, no snow melting from his hair… He looked right in Alice’s eyes and smiled. “You look like you could use a dime,” he told her.
Stunned, Alice nodded. How did he know? And where had he come from? She watched in disbelief as he dropped a dime into her hand. “Oh, thank you!” she said, turning immediately to the phone right behind her. How had he arrived without her hearing him? She looked back to ask him.
But there was no one standing there, no one walking away or turning down the long hall in front of her. The young man had completely vanished. How….? She dropped the precious dime into the phone slot and dialed her new home phone number. Thank heavens she had remembered it! “Dad answered and I explained my problem,” Alice says. “All I could do was tell him to look for the Education building.” Dad hadn’t sounded mad, not yet anyway. But Alice was too amazed over the sudden appearance of the young man to worry about anything.
It took about 30 minutes before Alice’s father drove up in front of the building where she was waiting to flag him down. Even though visibility was very poor, he had found her!”I was so glad to get in the car and sit beside dad,” Alice recalls. “He could barely see the street signs, but we arrived home safely.” Furthurmore, Alice’s father. didn’t scold her at all, or even complain about the treacherous ride. He was just grateful to have her home safely.
“I know without a doubt that the Lord sent me two angels that day,” Alice says. “The handsome young man probably was my personal guardian angel, and I hope he is still watching over me.” The other angel? The most important man in her life, her hero, her Valentine. Whether your dad is still on earth or home in heaven, don’t forget to send him a special Valentine this year. Like Alice’s dad, he may not have always told you how much he loved you. But he showed you—and that’s what counts.
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Wonderful story.