True Angel Story

This is a true angel story taken from my life that ended up in a modified version in my first thriller, coauthored with Joe Moore, THE GRAIL CONSPIRACY.

When my daughter, my little angel, Alexis, was a wee one, she had an imaginary playmate, or so we thought. Ever since she could speak, she talked about Motnees, her friend who would fly into her room at night. She pointed to a corner in the ceiling and told us that’s where Motnees would stay. We thought her stories were adorable. One day we were driving with her grandparents and her grandmother asked what Motnees looked like. Alexis spun her hand in circles above her head and said, “She has hair like this.” We thought maybe she meant her “playmate” had curly hair or bed head hair. We didn’t pay much attention.——

When my daughter was four years old, she had chickenpox, but at first I didn’t recognize it because she hadn’t broken out in the rash yet. I made the horrible mistake of giving her Tylenol. Soon after recovering, she awoke very ill. I took her to the doctor and confessed that I had given her Tylenol when she had chickenpox (Tylenol administered to a child who has a virus like chickenpox is associated with Reye’s Syndrome). After the doctor examined her, he told me her liver and spleen were enlarged, and she exhibited other symptoms of Reye’s Syndrome and to take her straight to the hospital, do not go home first, every minute mattered. I rushed her to the hospital, and the staff was ready for her. We skipped admissions and went straight to a private room where medical personnel immediately surrounded us. I was numb as I waited for the results of the tests. Relief came when the doctor called me and said she did not have Reye’s. Something was definitely wrong, but it wasn’t Reye’s. After a day’s stay, we took her home. For weeks her lymph nodes continued to be swollen, her liver and spleen enlarged, and a test called an erythrocyte sedimentation rate (sed rate), revealed there was still something going on in her body. The pediatrician came to believe she might have lymphoma or leukemia. Those were two terrible words that flung me into tears. He referred us to a pediatric hematologist to do a bone marrow biopsy, and a surgeon to do a lymph node biopsy. The two doctors arranged their schedules to do both procedures at the same time while she was under general anesthesia. We waited nervously for the initial results to come back. Our prayers were answered. Test results were negative. The medical pros finally concluded that it could be either lupus or juvenile rheumatoid arthritis. I could live with that.

I shamefully admit that we hadn’t made sure Alexis went Sunday School or had any other religious background. So, what happened one evening, about a week after her biopsies, took us by surprise. She called the biopsies her operation. As I tucked her in one night, she looked at me and asked, “Why did I have my operation?” I answered the best I could for a four-year-old. “The doctors thought you might have a bad sickness, and they wanted to check.” I smiled and added, “But you didn’t.” Alexis turned over so her back was to me and said, “Yes, I did, but God took it away and Motnees doesn’t have to come anymore.” Eventually, all her symptoms faded away.

Now I know when my little girl spun her hand in circles over her head and said Motnees had hair like that, she was describing an angel’s halo.