The Angelic Visitor

The hardest story to tell is the story that happened today. Today, December 12th is the day my husband died in 2008.  But this is a story that needs to be told because it is also the story of a visit by an angel.

Highlands Regional Hospital, Prestonsburg, KY:  My beloved was dying.  The doctor told me there was nothing to be done other than put him on a respirator, which Terry had told me several times he did not wish to ever be put on a respirator.  I was completely alone in the room with Terry while he was dying.  Suddenly a nurse came in that looked very familiar to me.   This wouldn't be strange because my Mother had died in the same hospital in 1983, and I had gotten familiar with most of the nurses.   

She came in and was with me when Terry died.  I was holding him and she was listening to his heart as he passed away.   She said words of comfort to me which I don't remember and then left the room.  

I was alone with my beloved.  I stayed with him about six minutes when I walked out into the hallway.  In the hallway was Terry's other doctor standing with a different nurse.  He looked at me with a smile and said, "How is Terry?!"  I was shocked, I had been a nurses aid in a nursing homes so I know that when someone passes away you report it immediately and the nurses station was very close to Terry's room.  I stuttered, "He's...gone."  He and the other nurse ran in and listened to his heart and said, "Yes, he is gone."  

I wondered why the nurse that had been with me when he died had not reported my husband's death.  She had definitely had time enough after she left my room, and the Doctor had obviously just come from the nurses station on his way to my husband's room, so he should have been informed.  

For the next three years, I thought about this nurse and who could she have been.  I had many questions.  
1.  Who was she? 
2. Why did she look so familiar to me, like I had seen her before?  
3.  Why didn't she report my husband's death to the Doctor and Nurses? 

One day in prayer God answered all my questions.  
"Lord", I said, "Who was she and why did I never see her again?"
  

The Lord showed me that the reason she looked familiar is she had been my Mother's nurse from 1983, but the only thing is she hadn't aged a day.  

This was an angel of God that He had sent to Terry.  God had allowed her to take a form that He knew would be comforting to me.  It was such a grace that when my beloved's heart beat the last time an angel had a hand right where his heart was to give that last beat.    

Angels are real, do not doubt it.   

The Wedding Band

When my beloved and I were one on the earth, I wore a wedding band of solid gold, it felt so good to be on my finger, a symbol of our love and that we were one and whole.  We lived in Eastern Kentucky up a 'holler' in Greasy Creek, KY where Loretta Lynn's husband Mooney Lynn used to Moonshine before they were married (and maybe some afterwards). A trailer on one acre of land and I was never so happy.  I had my beloved and if we were apart, I would sometimes turn my wedding band on my left hand and remember that he was mine, all mine, forever.  

Terry's Dad got sick and needing money for gas, I pawned my gold wedding ring, an unfortunate necessity for the family. Dad became almost bedfast at home and required round the clock care, we all were pitching in.  My beloved was becoming ill also, so I would come to Dad's house right after work.  As a result I didn't get my wedding ring out in time and lost it to the Pawn shop.  I have no regrets.  I would have gladly done the same again to help Dad.  

I missed my wedding band and it was the only physical thing that I lost that I think I ever cried over.  I had the mate to the wedding band, but it wasn't mine, it was my sisters'.  I wore it a few times, it didn't feel right, so I gave it to my sister.  

After the death of my Beloved, I was in so much pain I could not even think of replacing my wedding band or putting another one on, to do so would have been an unimaginable torture, a constant reminder of what I had, and what I had lost.  

Today, I bought another wedding band, and after 4 years of healing from this pain, I was ready to put it on again.  There will always be a part of me that is always going to be Terry's wife...Mrs. Terry Lee Horne, and although he is gone for a time, there is part of me that still needs to be that wife.  

When he would go out with me, many times because of his illness Terry had to stay in the truck while I shopped or did tasks that needed to be done.  For some reason, this seems very familiar now.  Terry is outside of where I am waiting for me to complete my task here so that we can journey again together.  I'll never forget coming out to the truck to see him sitting there, how happy I was, even if I had just been in the store a few minutes.  How much happier will I be when I see him again after the time allotted me?

The wedding band I got today is silver... I will await another gold one when I see my beloved and he places the next one on my finger.