Angels Among Us

Blonde Mom’s daughter on angels:

“Hear that? That’ s an angel!”

I looked at her and was admittedly a little puzzled, so I asked her why that was so.

“Well sometimes angels come down here and they are people and we can
see them and then they turn back into angels and we can’t see them.”

And then they go back up to heaven?

“Yeah.”

I rather like Miss C’s view on angels.

So do I. Earlier this week, 4 year old SpiderMan was talking about angels. He said angels look like fireflies, but they’re bigger than fireflies. Upon hearing that, 13 year old Flip got sad.

"Angels," he said. "Grandma loved angels. But now she is an angel, so that’s the good news." My grandmother died very unexpectedly on August 31st. It’s been a hard couple of months without her, and her birthday is this weekend, so we have been thinking of her and missing her even more lately.

When we told SpiderMan that Grandma was dead, he didn’t react much. I figured he didn’t really understand the concept to dying, so I explained it and he still didn’t react. I decided he would understand eventually. Well, eventually is now.

"Grandma is an angel?" asked SpiderMan.

"Yes," I said, "Grandma died and went to Heaven, remember? And now she’s an angel."

"GRANDMA DIED?" Nate shouted. "Oh, no! I miss her! Now I’ll never see her again. Man."

Now, Nate went to Grandma’s funeral like the rest of us did. And he was the one who was here to hear my hard, ragged crying when my mom called and told me Grandma was gone. And he was actually the first person I told that Grandma was dead. But here, 2 months later when we tell him she’s an angel, he gets it. And I’m left, the waves of grief washing over me like it’s brand new.

How do I think angels look? I think sometimes they come down and take over a person just when you need them most. I think usually they are invisible, but when you can see them, they are immensely beautiful.

I think, most of all, that my grandmother is one of them and is comforting me. And she’s watching me, which is certainly incentive to be a good person.

What do you think angels are like?