Asleep At The Wheel

I found myself pacing the floor -- something that I rarely had to do when it came to my daughter, Kellie. She always called to let me know where she was if she would be late. She should have been home hours ago. I had the horrible feeling that something was terribly wrong. She wasdriving home from camp, where she was a counselor at a camp for kids with cancer. It was a two and a half hour drive and she was expected home by 6:30 that evening.

Now, it was after nine and I hadn't heard from her. I imagined every It was after 11:00pm when I called the highway patrol to ask if anything unusual had happened along the route she would have taken. Had there been any accidents? Nothing had been reported but they would keep an eye out for her car. I then found myself calling hospitals along her route and found they hadn't had any accident victims that met Kellie's description. I was beside myself with fear and guilt. "If only I'd just driven her myself!" I sat on the couch and tried to watch television, but couldn't concentrate.

Suddenly, I was startled awake! Confused at first, then suddenly remembering my fears, I jumped up from the couch and ran into the kitchen. How could I have fallen asleep when my oldest child was missing? I was consumed with an over powering feeling of fear and I knew something was terribly wrong. I looked at the kitchen clock. It was 1:10 am!

I fell to my knees and began praying, "Please God, don't let anything happen to her. "Send an angel to sit closely beside her and bring her safely home."

I began pacing once more from window to window, looking out each one at the quiet, dark night. It was 2:40am when I first saw the glow of the headlights. When her car pulled into the driveway, I began weeping and ran outside. She was home and she was alive, and that's all I cared about for the moment.

Kellie came into the kitchen with me and sat down and began to recount her adventure to me. Telling me how she had taken the wrong exit and drove for hours in the WRONG direction. Then, how she retraced her path to find the proper exit. She told me how tired she had become and how difficult it was to stay awake.

Then suddenly, her eyes filled with tears as she continued her story.

"Mom, I was so tired, I kept dozing off when suddenly I looked over and someone was in my car! Sitting there in the passenger seat, I was so startled to see a man who looked just like Granddad!" she told me.

My father had passed away only five months before. She continued, "All of a sudden, I was sitting on the opposite side of the road, on the shoulder. The car was stopped.

There were deep ditches on both sides of the road and the car was sitting not two feet from a utility pole. It was so quiet and so dark,"Kellie continued. "The only thing I noticed was the green glow from the car clock. Then he was gone! I was alone in the car."

I hugged my precious daughter and through my tears I asked, "What time did the clock say it was?"

"Mom," Kellie replied, "I'll never forget that time, it was 1:16 am."

1:16 am! Just six minutes from the time I had prayed that an angel be sent to her side!

"Kellie, that was your angel riding in that car with you. And that angel saved your life!"

-- Robin Nisius



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