Page 14 - NewsandViews Summer 2024

What an Angel! Barrie Mahoney

“Oh, she’s an angel”, or “Thank you, you’re an angel” are some of the comments that I sometimes hear,
often following an act of kindness or generosity. Maybe such comments are more common in the older
generation nowadays, but I am used to hearing them. It is always a comment that startles me for a
moment, and I wonder.

As with many issues, I’m never too sure what the Quaker view is on angels or the physical embodiment of
the spirit through healing. I suspect that there are a wide range of views and acceptances, but I hope that
a belief in angels is not trivialised or dismissed.

Yes, I do believe in angels; I always have done. Admittedly my understanding of them has grown and
developed over the years with the experiences of life. To put it simply, I believe that angels are the
physical embodiment of the Spirit that guides, supports, encourages and challenges us in our daily lives.
The Spirit may manifest itself through people, or indeed animals that we are close to, such as our dog or
cat.

My mother believed in angels too. Her faith was no nonsense and black and white, as was her career in
nursing. She was no pushover and could spot an untruth before I even opened my mouth. As I was
growing up, she often referred to angels that surround us in our everyday lives, yet only rarely referred to
the ‘incident’ that she had experienced many years earlier. I remember that my equally no-nonsense
father discouraged her from speaking about it, since he thought it made my mother sound foolish. Later
in her life, I questioned her several times about what she had seen, and the answer was always the
same with a crystal-clear memory. “They are all around us”, she would say, “Just keep an
open mind and you will see”.

As I progress through life, I have experienced support that I cannot always explain. I have met people who
briefly enter my life with words of wisdom, suggestions, encouragement, and support, and often using
words that don’t appear to be their own. Sometimes, it is someone that I know that is offering support,
but often it is a stranger who enters my life briefly and I never see again.

We have recently lost our much-loved dog, Oscar, a corgi. He came
into our lives as an unwanted stray and from the moment that we
met, he and I bonded closely. Oscar always seemed to sense when
the bad news came, when I was ill, when the chemotherapy was
getting too much. Later, as I lost my peripheral vision, he began to
guide me up and down the steps that lead to our outside patio. He
would wait at each step for me before guiding me to the next, and
sit by my side to rest before repeating the process going down the
steps. He behaved like a guide dog, but as far as I know he never had
training. Loss is painful, but I do know that I had an angel by my side
when it was most needed; he was called Oscar.

Although angels are often popular in films, books and songs, they are
rarely taken seriously in ‘real life’. I sometimes watch popular films
that includes an angel, who is usually someone that you would least
expect to represent ‘the heavenly host’. I often find it hard to dismiss these as fiction, since I suspect
there is some truth behind the representation. I believe that angels are with us, supporting and helping us
every day of our lives. The question is whether “You are an angel” comment refers to someone who is
particularly kind or has done a good deed, or is really an angel? My guess is, it doesn’t really matter.

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