The Day My Guardian Angel Saved My Life

Today I am reprinting a story written by my friend Betty. She is a career mail carrier and we met during the Good Friday Tornado that hit our town in April 2009. She joined the Red Cross efforts and gave up her weekend to serve others. This story is a little long, but well worth the read. I hope that it blesses all who read it. Thank you Betty for sharing!

"It was a normal cold day the 16th of January 1998. 12 years ago - a day that has been etched in my head forever. I woke up feeling strange. Feeling like I never felt before. Something was wrong but I didn't know what. I mean I had just woke up, what could possibly be wrong? I wasn't feeling sick. I kept thinking, maybe it had to do with my brother Jimmy, who at the time was having trouble just being a cop in Knoxville, and the death of a drug addict who ran from him and his partners. So I tried to shrug it off. I went into work trying not to think of anything but what I was supposed to be doing. As the day progressed, my feelings got worse. Something was terribly wrong. I couldn't figure to save my life what was going on.

I went out on my route, which at the time was mostly businesses and mostly walking an old neighborhood in downtown Nashville. Most of the people that lived there were older people who would come out and fuss at me for not having a cover on my head to keep the warmth in. As I walked into one of these businesses, it was a man and a woman who actually worked side by side with totally different businesses. She was an interior designer. He redid classic cars. They always hung out together though and that day I walked in and the woman looked at me and said, "what's wrong with you? You don't look right." I told her I had no clue what I was feeling, just had the bad feeling all day. The man, came up behind me, put his hands on my shoulders and squeezed them. He leaned over my shoulder and told me "I'm sending your Guardian Angel to be with you the rest of the day." I thanked them for that and went on my way.

I feel I must tell some of you how walking house to house is usually done by mail carriers, going from the mailbox on the porch and cutting straight across through the yard to the next porch. It cuts some time for us. That day, something made me go from the porch, walk down their sidewalks, walk the sidewalk that ran right next to 2nd Ave, which is a very busy one way street, and walk up the next sidewalk to the next door. If I had not completely changed my routine that very day, I may not be here telling you about it.

Still feeling strong about something going terribly wrong that day, I was walking with my head down, thinking about how I really should have a hat on since it was only about 27 degrees at the time. Thinking to myself that one day, I'm gonna listen to these old women and freak them out by having one on! I also must tell you, which is quite important part of this story, I dress in layers. It's much warmer than wearing just one big heavy coat. And I can maneuver better.

Well on this faithful day of a very bad feeling, changing my routine, wishing I had a hat on, and being told my guardian angel was going to be with me.......... it hit. I was on the sidewalk next to the busy 2nd Ave and turned my head to go up the next sidewalk. All I remember was a black mass in the air with teeth right at my face! The little I remember after that was going down and giving this dog, which turned out to be 3 Rottweilers, my backside. I remember being dragged and little by little, my shirts were coming off. First, my Postal sweater, then, my sweatshirts, then my longjohn shirt. I was being dragged to the backyard, but they couldn't get a good hold of me because of my clothes.
The next thing I remember, was looking up and seeing this man with a 6 foot metal pole hovering over me. My thought at that point, "Oh God, don't hit me...." My customers had come out of their houses next door and were chasing the dogs away. One of them being scared to death of dogs, as I found out later, had the courage to grab one of the dogs and throw him off me while this other man with the six foot pole, who was an electrician just passing by and saw the commotion of my customers, grabbed a pole from the back of his truck started beating at the other dogs.
I remember one of the men yelling at me to stay down that I was bleeding and help was on the way. I refused not knowing if they would come back for me. I had nothing but a t-shirt on at this point and didn't feel the cold at all. An ambulance came and put me in the back. The police came in droves. They were everywhere, and I could hear shooting, with guns and shotguns. The cops apparently were freaking out so bad, they missed the dogs, and shot a car, someone's shudders, a gutter and who knows what else. But they missed the dogs. The elementary school a block up the road was put on lockdown, the entire neighborhood was in total chaos! All because of my bad feeling that from now on, I will call in sick if I EVER get it again.

I went to the hospital and to the amazement of the Doctors and nurses who found out 3 Rottweilers were mauling me, I had minor wounds. One hole in my leg, one in my arm, plenty of scratch bite marks on my back and one in my rearend. I did have to get my rearend operated on about a month later, because I found I was not able to sit down without being in pain. One of them had left me a gift, a piece of their tooth. Don't get me wrong, My entire side of my body was a solid black and blue and I stayed that way for a couple weeks, not being able to move hardly from being so sore and hurting.
BUT I WAS ALIVE!

I found out later that the man who lived there, God rest his soul, he died about 5 years ago, had 13 dogs in his back yard! I was lucky only 3 of them got out that day. The police said, the dogs were dragging me to the back yard to take me to the other dogs.
The Post Office gave the 4 people who contributed to saving my life each a beautiful brass eagle about 12 to 15 inches tall with the inscription of their names and what they did for me and $100 each.

As for the dogs, the last one was found the next day and the owner had 10 of his dogs put down. I didn't like hearing about that, I do not blame the dogs for what they did. They are, after all, dogs.

I lived at the time with my sister and we had the next door neighbor who owned a Rotty and knew I couldn't go outside if she was out with her dog. Until one day, my sister asked me to go next door to borrow a couple eggs. The woman answered the door and I backed up because the dog came with her. She said, 'it's okay Betty, let me get you those eggs.' She walked away with the door wide open and that Rottweiler slowly walked out as I froze in one place. I couldn't move, I couldn't run, I couldn't even speak. My eyes closed and I felt her dog sniffing me and then........... he licked me and looked up as if to say, 'see, we aren't all bad! You're my neighbor and I want you to go back to talking to me when I'm outside like you used to." She came back with those eggs, and asked me to put my hand on her dog and pet him. I did. And it was the first step to my recovery.
Since then, I have become more of a dog lover than I ever had been. I at that time had 2 chows, they finallly left me 2 and 3 years ago. They lived one heck of a full life with me and my son. They had to endure when I brought home a yapping Yorky 5 years ago,(I think), and when I said, "look Jason what followed me home!" A solid black German Shepard! She is a true and true dog that never leaves my side. She even walks behind the lawnmower when I cut grass.

That fateful day, January 16th, 1998 will be a day that I will forever be thankful for my life being spared. God, my Guardian Angel, my 3 customers and that one man with the very long steel pole saved my son from becoming motherless. Life from that moment on became something I cherish! I believe my customer really did call upon my Guardian Angel to make sure he was with me the rest of the day. I believe that Angel covered me when I was being attacked! I believe that is why I came out of it with so little scars. I believe that God made sure I didn't suffer mentally for long because my son needed his Mother to be the strong woman he knows me as. I returned to work a month later.
I have never worked that day again, and I never will. That is my day....

Well, until now. My son is getting married on that same day! So from now on......... this day will be a day of rejoicing, not only me being alive, but a new chapter in my wonderful son's life will be opening up!"

Today's Scripture: Ephesians 6:13