It was a rainy night and I was on a tight schedule as I impatiently made my way through a slow construction zone just west of Detroit, Michigan.
Around 2:00 a.m. I spotted an elderly lady standing by a broken down old car. The rain had saturated her thin coat. I ignored the fact she was desperately waving me down.
Without stopping, I passed where she stood, I justified my action by telling myself there where plenty of other people who had the time to help. But as I wound my way around to the next exit a feeling of regret I still can’t explain gripped me.
I felt compelled to turn off. And to my surprise I found myself steering my rig back around headed once more for the stranded car.
When I pulled up I saw two small heads pop up in the back seat. Then a young man approached my rig. I offered to take him and his family to a gas station so they could get help.
I watched as he gathered up his children and young wife. But where was the elderly lady? As they piled through my passenger door I asked if that was all of them.
They looked at me puzzled. I then asked about the older lady. They didn’t appear to know what I was talking about so I tried once more. Didn’t you see the overweight lady with the snow-white frizzy hair standing out in the rain.
They replied no. The wife asked if I had noticed anything else about her. I told her the lady was tall but stooped over. She then began to cry. It was my turn to be puzzled.
The wife wiped her nose and told me that I had just described her grandmother who had died recently.
She turned to her husband still sniffling. She stated, “I have always heard relatives sometimes return as guardians in times of trouble but I didn’t believe it until now.”
This encounter still gives me chills even though it has been over 10 years. For some unknown reason that night I felt compelled to go back.
I guess the wife was right. I encountered a force that was not of this world.
