Angels in My Hair (9 page)

Just after the fire exploded, one of the chairs moved and
went flying across the room, where it hit the far wall and
broke.

Da jumped and ran for me and the door, grabbing his bag as
he went. He pulled me out of the door and we ran as fast as we
could through the trees, back down along the banks of the
river. We were both scared out of our wits and ran faster than
we had ever done before in our lives. Da was a faster runner
than me and dragged me behind him. Eventually, out of
breath, we slowed down. The rain had stopped and the sun
had come out; I felt its warmth on my face.

Silently, Da tried to light a campfire. His hands were shaking
and he was having difficulty lighting it. I was watching Da,
waiting for him to say something. I spoke to the angels without
words, and asked them to calm Da down. After some minutes,
Da got the fire going, and when the billy can boiled he made
tea. We ate our sandwiches in silence.

Eventually Da said, in a trembling voice, 'I'm sorry for
frightening you like that, Lorna. I got a big fright myself. I
don't really know what it was, but the only thing I've ever
heard of that moves chairs around is a poltergeist, and I've
never heard of anything making a fire explode like that.'

Da knew a lot about fires and he was very careful in how he
handled them. I think the fire exploding had scared him more
than the chair moving.

I never said a word; I just continued drinking my tea. I didn't
want my da to know how frightened I had been. I had been
terrified – even though deep down I knew we would be safe
because the angels were minding us.

As I sat there by the fire Michael touched my shoulder,
although he didn't appear to me. Michael said Da was right.
The creature I had seen was a poltergeist. He explained to me
that poltergeists are creatures without souls that are created by
Satan. Sometimes people invite them in. One way they do this
is by experimenting with black magic or Ouija boards, or other
things like that. Poltergeists, Michael told me, are sly creatures
and they creep in wherever they are given an opportunity, and
they can cause enormous destruction.

Da and I finished lunch in silence, and when we were
finished we packed up. Da suggested we continued fishing on
another stretch of river. I agreed.We both wanted to be a long
way from that place. We carried on fishing some miles away,
which calmed us both down, and we caught enough fish for
dinner.

As we enjoyed eating the fish at home that night we didn't
make any mention of what had happened during the day. Da
and I never spoke of it again.

One afternoon, while I was washing my hands at the sink in
the garage toilets, I looked in the mirror and an angel appeared
– just her face at first. She startled me and I jumped. As I
stepped back, the mirror on the wall seemed to disappear and
the angel came into full view. Her radiant light filled the place.

The angel spoke before I did; she called my name.

'Lorna, call me Angel Elisha.'

As she said this, she reached out and took my hands in hers.
Her hands felt like feathers, and when I looked down at them
they resembled feathers, too, but had a completely human
shape.

I'm referring to Elisha as a she because she appeared to me
as a female; but angels are in fact neither male nor female as we
are, they are sexless beings. They only appear in the human
image to help us to accept them and make us less afraid and
they change their appearance to being female or male so as to
make us feel more at ease, or to help us to understand more
clearly the message they are giving.

I said earlier that the angels told me a little about Elijah
while I was writing this book, and at the same time they told
me that Elisha is the prophet to whom the prophet Elijah gave
his mantle shortly before he ascended to heaven in a chariot.
However, Elisha is a man in the Old Testament.

'Angel Elisha, why are you here? Is something going to
change in my life?' I asked.

'Yes, Lorna,' she said. 'You are going to get a new job. I'm
going to help your Mum meet an old acquaintance of hers and
you'll get a new job in a department store in Dublin.'

I was about to ask Angel Elisha when this was going to
happen, when someone knocked on the toilet door. I shouted,
'I'll be out in a minute.'

Angel Elisha put her feathered finger to her mouth and
disappeared.

I was very excited at the idea of getting a new job, even if it
meant that I wasn't going to be able to see Joe every day. I felt
it would give me a lot more independence from my parents,
and it would help them to see that I was capable of doing
things on my own. While I was in the garage under my father's
protection, they couldn't see this.

Some weeks later I was out in the back garden feeding my
rabbit when Mum suggested I ask Da for a day off.

'It has been a long time since we've been shopping together,'
she said. 'We can browse around the shops and then maybe
have lunch in Arnotts department store.'

'I would love that,' I said.

The next day I asked Da about having that Thursday off and
he told me that Mum had already asked him, so it was all
settled.

The angels make me laugh and smile a lot. I knew all of this
had to do with Angel Elisha: she had manipulated the
situation, putting thoughts into Mum's head. I could see the
plot unfolding and I had no doubts in my mind that it would
all come about; it made me feel good to know that my mum
was listening to her angels.

The anticipation was almost too much to bear – knowing
what the outcome of the shopping trip with Mum in Dublin
would be. That Thursday we went into the city by bus. It was
quite busy, with all the usual hustle and bustle. Mum and I
visited many department stores along O'Connell Street, Henry
Street and Mary Street and we browsed through many beautiful
things. Mum always loved looking at the china section, so
I managed to escape for a while, pretending to look at other
things.

Then I heard Elisha say, 'Look at your mum, Lorna.'

I looked down along the aisle to where Mum was standing,
looking at china. I saw two shining beings; one was Mum's
guardian angel, but the biggest surprise was to see my spirit
brother, Christopher. It was so long since I had seen my spirit
brother – many years. I was thrilled to see him; I wanted to run
down and take his hand like we did when I was a child in Old
Kilmainham, but my guardian angel held my feet fast to the
ground. (He does that when he knows I am overwhelmed and
he doesn't want me to move.)

Christopher turned to me and smiled, then he turned back
to my mother and started to whisper in her ear. Now I knew
how my mother was able to hear the angels – it was because
Christopher was acting as an intermediary.

'Angel Elisha,' I said, 'I would love to tell Mum that
Christopher is standing there with her.'

'You can't, Lorna,' she replied.

'But he is so magnificent, so beautiful,' I said, pleading with
her. Just then, light engulfed my spirit brother, Christopher.
He was enveloped in a light emanating from my mother's
guardian angel. It touched me very deeply; it was one of the
most magnificent sights I had ever seen.

Mum turned around and called me, and as I walked towards
her the light around her became brighter and brighter. Then
the angels disappeared, but I knew they were still there.

'Let's go and have lunch over in Arnotts department store,'
Mum said. We went in and, as usual, there was a big queue in
the restaurant.We got our lunch and found a table to sit down.
Mum talked about all the lovely things she had seen. She had
bought some spoons and a plate that had a little flaw. While we
were having lunch Mum said, 'We will get the two o'clock bus
home; we will have just enough time to go to one more
department store on Mary Street.'

As soon as we were finished lunch we walked down to Mary
Street. As I pushed open the doors, Angel Elisha was standing
just inside. The whole place felt vibrant to me. I could feel the
energy; something good was going to happen for me and there
would also be a surprise for my mum.

Mum had turned to go to the knitwear counter when a man
approached her. He was small and skinny and was wearing a
suit.Mum didn't seem to recognise him, but he had recognised
her and called her by her name. He introduced himself and
there was a look of surprise on my mum's face.

'Surely,' he said to her, 'you must remember me. I lived a few
doors up the road from you. We even went out together on a
few occasions.'

All of a sudden Mum's face lit up as she recognised him.
They talked and laughed. Mum seemed to forget all about me
standing there beside her. Then the man asked Mum, 'Who is
this young lady with you, Rose? Is this your daughter?'

'Yes,' my mum replied, 'this is Lorna.'

Just then my spirit brother, Christopher, whispered in
Mum's ear and, without hesitation, these words came out of
Mum's mouth. 'Lorna is looking for work; she's been working
with her Da for the last two years and could do with a change.'

The man turned to me and said, 'Lorna, see where the stairs
are? Go up the stairs to reception and ask for an application
form. Fill it in and take it to the office. Ask to speak to Phyllis.'

I did as he said. I knocked on the office door and asked to
speak to Phyllis; I was feeling nervous and asked the angels
to stay close to me. The lady in the office asked to see my
application form. She told me the manager was not in the
office and sent me back down the stairs to find her. She told
me to turn left, go down the little corridor and then she said
I'd see a door on the left. I thanked her and went back down
the stairs, took a left turn down a little corridor and knocked
on the office door which was slightly ajar. I called out,
'Hello?'

'Come in, the door is open,' a woman's voice replied.

I opened the door fully and looked into the office. It was
quite dark and inside, sitting at a desk, was a small, middle aged
lady. I noticed you could see right across the shop floor
because the front of the office was made of glass. Angel Elisha
was standing there with the lady, so that made me feel more at
ease. The lady introduced herself and said she was the manager
of the store.

'What can I do for you?' she asked.

I told her that the manager on the shop floor had sent me up
to see her. She asked to look at my application form and asked
if I had ever worked for anyone other than my Da.

'No, this would be my first job outside of the garage,' I
replied.

She told me that I was lucky, there were a few vacancies and
I could start the following Monday. She told me to come
straight to her office at nine o'clock on Monday morning and
if she was not there, she would be on the shop floor. She would
show me to the department I was to work in and have one of
the girls show me the ropes. We shook hands and I said
goodbye.

I was so delighted I nearly danced down the stairs. A new job
– and in a fashion store – I was thrilled. I was singing praise
and thanks to all my angels. When I got back to where Mum
was I found her still in conversation with her friend. I noticed
then that he looked a lot older than my mum. He turned to me
and asked how I got on with Phyllis.

'I start work on Monday,' I replied.

'Great,' he said. He and Mum spoke for another couple of
minutes and then he said he had to go.

I met Joe the next evening and told him about my new job.
He was delighted for me, even though he said he would miss
seeing me at work every day. He told me 'absence makes the
heart grow fonder' and he agreed that not working for Da
would make me a lot more independent. Joe and I were so
close by now that working in the same place or not made little
difference. We were spending an awful lot of time together,
but we were still keeping it secret from everyone.

On Monday morning I walked into the store. It looked so
empty, although there were a lot of staff on the floor. The store
manager was there, so I walked up to her. She told me to follow
her down to the cloakrooms, which I did, even though I was
extremely nervous and afraid. This was my first job away from
family, completely on my own. She introduced me to Frances,
who was in charge of one of the ladies' fashion sections – skirts
– and I was to be her new assistant.

I was very apprehensive that first day, and I was particularly
concerned about the lunch break, but I needn't have worried:
a girl called Pauline, who was much the same age as me and
worked in the same department, came over to me during the
morning and told me that we were both on the same lunch
break and invited me to join her. She showed me the ropes and
we became good friends.

From the beginning I very much enjoyed working there. I
liked dealing with people and I loved the atmosphere of the
shop. The management was decent, and quite caring. I was in
my element working in the fashion department; I soon learned
everything there was to know about skirts and, sometimes,
when the skirt department was not too busy, I would help out
in other ladies' sections.

After only a few weeks in my new job, the angels brought my
attention to a young man called Mark, who worked in the
handbag department. He was tall and thin with brown wavy
hair and brown eyes and he always seemed to wear a brown
suit. At times, when I looked over at him, I would see a soft
subtle light around him.

One afternoon, when the shop was quiet, I stood watching
Mark from across the floor and I saw an angel appear behind
him. This was not a guardian angel I was seeing – the vibrancy
and light surrounding him was completely different to that of
a guardian angel. This angel was elegant, slender and
extremely tall.

I knew there was something very different about what I was
seeing. The angel turned and looked at me with compassion on
his face. Then he stood behind Mark and leaned forward over
the young man's shoulders and reached into his body and
touched his soul. I saw him lift Mark's soul very gently, like a
new born baby, and rock it forward and backwards through his
body with gentleness and compassion. The young man seemed
to stand there, very still, as if in a trance, and totally unaware
of what was going on.

I started to cry, but I didn't know why. I was full of emotion,
but I didn't know what it was about. I felt a tap on my
shoulder. It was Angel Hosus. I turned and looked at him. He
put his hands up to my face to wipe away the tears that were
filling my eyes and he told me to find an excuse to go to the
storeroom and he would meet me there.

I looked around to see where the manager was; to my relief
he was standing at the back entrance of the store, talking to a
security guard. I told him I was going to the stock room.

I went into the store rooms through the two heavy doors
which, when pushed, swung open and then closed behind you
as you walked through. The rooms were packed with boxes
everywhere. I made my way through them then went up the
big stone spiral staircase. The fashion department storeroom
was three flights up on the top floor. I ran up the stairs as fast
as I could and pushed a small door open. The room was poorly
lit and was full of rails and boxes of clothes.

I looked down along the rails; they were as high as the
ceilings but I couldn't see Hosus. Knowing no one else was
there, I called out his name. I walked down the last aisle of rails
and there he was, sitting on a box in the corner, waiting formed.
My heart lifted when I saw him.

'Angel Hosus,' I said as I sat down, 'I need to know about the
angel I saw. What is going to happen to the young man?'

Hosus reached out and took my hand.

'I can only tell you a little. The angel you saw was different;
he is the Angel of Death. This angel does not appear unless
someone is going to die in extraordinary circumstances. The
Angel of Death does everything in his power to try and prevent
it from happening, and he has many angels working with him.
You can be sure, for instance, that when an agency is planning
an atrocity that will destroy innocent life, the Angel of Death
will have been trying for a long time to convince the people
involved that God does not want this to happen. There should
not be war, but peace, and only peace. The Angel of Death
works everywhere – even amongst the very highest level of
Government – to prevent the taking of innocent life, especially
in times of war. The Angel of Death works extremely hard
trying to convince people, but do they listen to the angels?
Sometimes, maybe, but not always!'

Before this if I had thought of an angel called the Angel of
Death I would have envisioned an angel carrying nothing but
disaster, pain and anguish; yet this angel was full of love and
compassion.

I thanked Hosus and went back to work. I had learnt when
not to ask more.

We are all brought up to fear the Angel of Death, but the
Angel of Death is for life. The Angel of Death is a good angel,
who fights on behalf of the living and for what is right and
good.

From that point onwards I became much more aware of
Mark; every time I looked at him I also saw the Angel of Death.
I know he had a guardian angel with him, too, but I was never
shown it. Every day my attention was being drawn to him; it
was as if I was watching over him, trying to intercede for him
so that maybe, somehow, things would change and the angels
would be listened to.

Normally, two other girls worked with Mark in the handbag
department, however, one day, to my surprise, I discovered he
was aware of me watching him. Sometime later he came to my
department and asked the floor manager if he could borrow
me for a while, to work on the handbag counter. I knew this
was not Mark's doing, but that of the angels: they had
whispered in Mark's ear and had been listened to. This was
done so that Mark and I could spend some time together.

As the months passed, my heart was really heavy. I learned
more about him from the other girls. He had a girlfriend in
Northern Ireland and he travelled by bus and train to visit her
every weekend. I kept hoping that everything would be okay,
but my angels were still asking me to help him, so in my heart
and soul I knew he was not safe.

The shop was always very busy, especially at the weekends,
and several times a year there were sales. These sales were
always packed – mostly with women, and some of them would
bring young children and babies in prams. During the sales the
staff spent most of their day picking up clothes from the floor,
where they had been dropped by women in their frantic efforts
to find bargains. It was difficult to keep the clothes off the
floor. It was chaotic and there was a constant queue at the cash
register, but I quite enjoyed the sales, because I was always
busy and the day passed very quickly. I also liked helping
people.

One particular Saturday during a sale, I was squeezing in
between customers, trying to hang skirts back on the rails,
when I felt a pull on my uniform. I looked down and to my
amazement, saw two little angels. They were childlike in
appearance, about two-feet-tall with wings. They were bathed
in a beautiful bright light and joy poured from them; they were
so bubbly they sparkled. I had seen angels like this before, and
every time I see them they make me feel like a child myself;
these little angels touch the child within me, they fill me with
joy, happiness and laughter.

As I looked down, one of the little angels said, 'Come
quickly, Lorna! You must follow us.'

They guided me through the crowd to the other end of the
fashion department. The little angels disappeared into the
crowd but I could still hear them calling to me.

'Underneath the blouse rail, Lorna, look underneath the
blouse rail,' they said.

When I reached the blouse rail I stood there looking at all
these women searching through the blouses, frantic to find
what they wanted and practically fighting over things. I was
shocked that they were so aggressive. The little angels had said
'underneath the rail', so I knew where to look. I knew there
had to be a young child under there.

I was pushing my way in between the women, excusing
myself and pretending to tidy the blouses, when I felt a little
hand touch my ankle. I bent down, pushing some women
away, and picked up a little child. I walked away from the
crowd, and within no time at all a mother came over and told
me it was her child I was holding. I said that this was a very
dangerous place to leave a young child unattended, but she
ignored me, took the child from my arms and walked away.

The two little angels looked very sad. I said to them, 'That
mother just isn't listening.'

The two little angels asked me to follow this mother and
child and keep an eye on her. The little angels also followed
them and I could see the mother's guardian angel whispering
in her ear.

I tried to look out for them, but it was very difficult as
customers were constantly asking me for help. There was
pandemonium everywhere. Every chance I got I would look
for the mother and her child, and the little angels helped me
by sending up a beam of light. Whenever I saw this beam of
light I felt relieved. Suddenly, the little angels were pulling at
my clothes again.

'Come quickly! Something is about to happen and we may
not be able to stop it if the mother doesn't listen to us,' they
said.

I followed the little angels as quickly as I could. To my
amazement, they left a trail of sparkling light behind them as
they disappeared into the crowd. I could actually see through
the crowd because, from the waist down, they had become
transparent tome. In amongst this crowd of women I could see
where the little child was standing. As I approached I called
out, 'Be careful of that child!'

The women around the rail were so engrossed in their
search for a bargain that they did not hear my words; they were
not listening. I could see what was about to happen, but I
could not prevent it. I wanted to reach out, I wanted to stop it.
Many hands were pulling garments from hangers – this way
and that – and, in doing so, one of the women accidentally
pulled a hanger across the child's face, catching the corner of
the child's eye and pulling it from its socket.

I saw one of the little angels put a hand up to the child's eye;
even though the eye was out of the socket the angel's touch
prevented the hanger from ripping the eye away altogether. The
child started to scream, and when the mother saw what had
happened she screamed too, grabbed her child and held her in
her arms. I reached the mother and child and stretched out and
touched her, asking God to intercede and save her eye.

A voice cried out, 'Somebody call for an ambulance!'

It was very hard to look at the child, with her eye hanging
out of its socket and the little angels holding the eye to prevent
the threads from breaking. To see such caring and tenderness
is to know that we are loved; even at difficult times when we
think nobody cares, that nobody loves us, the angels are there.
Always remember: angels' love is unconditional.

The child continued to scream and the manager rushed over
and took the mother and child up to the office.

I heard later that they had been able to save her eye.

Joe and I were falling in love and we continued to grow closer.
I started to go to Joe's mother's house most evenings after
work. She always gave me a great welcome and made me feel
part of the family. She was a tall, well-built woman with curly
hair and she always had a smile on her face. I talked with her
a lot; I would sit at her kitchen table while she worked away
and she would never let me lift a hand. I loved talking with her.
One particular conversation made me feel very happy: she told
me she was glad that Joe had met such a nice young woman,
that this was something she had always prayed for and that she
would love to see the two of us get married and have children.
She told me that to see her younger son settled with a wife
would leave her with no worries. She told me not to tell him
this, though: that it was only between her and me.

Joe would come home to his mother's about an hour after
me and we would all have dinner together. Joe's mother was a
great cook and I loved her bacon and cabbage and apple tarts.
After dinner, Joe and I would go to the bus stop, hoping to
catch the 10 o'clock bus into the city and then another bus to
Leixlip, where I lived. When I think of it now, we spent an
awful lot of time travelling on buses.

I still hadn't told my parents about Joe, although we had
now been going out together for more than a year. Strange as
it may seem, my mother never asked where I was in the
evenings – perhaps she presumed I was working late all the
time. I was a little apprehensive of what Da might think;
whether he would approve or not, but I did know that Da
really liked Joe. My big fear was what my mother would say
when she found out.

It was normal practice to work late restocking the rails one
or two nights a week. We worked out a roster for a two-week
period and I usually worked Thursdays and Fridays; some of
the girls didn't want to work Fridays, but I didn't mind because
I saw Joe most evenings, and he often had to work late on a
Friday, too. Sometimes I would also work on Wednesday
evenings, depending on how busy the store was. Often I would
find Mark working late on the same evenings as me. The Angel
of Death was always visible to me; constantly holding on to
Mark's soul. Mark was so happy he just beamed with life; but
in my conversations with the angels they told me they had lost
the battle.

One day I was working at the cash register with Valerie, one
of the girls that I was friendly with, folding clothes and putting
them into bags and Mark did something he had never done
before. He came over to talk to us. He told us all about his
girlfriend, how she was from Northern Ireland and he was
going to see her at the weekend. He told us that he was crazy
about her, that she was the best thing that ever happened to
him and that in the future he hoped to marry her.

I saw his beautiful angel holding him as if he were the most
precious human being in the world and I started to tremble.

The Angel of Death did not want to take Mark, but he would
be left with no choice because people were not listening to
their angels. I could hear the angel clearly speaking to me; I
could have reached out and touched the Angel of Death as well
as Mark, but I was told not to. Then Mark said he had to go.

I turned to Valerie and told her I had to go to the loo. I ran
out of the shop, out the back door and into the loo. I sat there
and cried. Eventually, I plucked up the courage to go back to
work, giving out to the angels all the time because I felt so sad
and so helpless.

After I'd been working in the store about a year, I was asked
to work late one day, and I agreed. I knew I had to be there:
Mark was working late as well. As I worked I watched Mark
and his angel and I prayed. I could feel Mark's great joy and
happiness, the great love he had for his girlfriend. I felt so sure
that he was now engaged, that he was imagining his future
with his girlfriend; that's what he was living for.