Angels in My Hair

by Lorna Byrne

  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.

  Chapter Nine

 
; The Angel of Death

  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.