Shirley Miller of Pittsburgh had received a phone call from her brother in Phoenix, which had left her alarmed and upset. “Our 96-year-old mother was in the hospital, and wasn’t expected to live much longer,” Shirley says. “The family was gathering, and I needed to fly out as soon as possible.”
Fortunately she was able to find a seat on a flight later that day. A friend took her to the airport and dropped her in front of her airline checkpoint. So far, so good. But when she arrived at the security line, her heart sank. Passengers were in two lines, each extending the length of the area, and moving slowly. Shirley looked at her watch. There was no way she could get through this line and reach her gate in time. She was going to miss her flight.
Shirley began to pray. “Mom, wait for me,” she said in her heart. A moment later, Shirley saw a woman in a uniform coming towards her. “Hello,” she said to Shirley, ignoring the other passengers. “Do you see that line across the room?”
“Yes,” Shirley answered. What now? Had she done something wrong?
“If you go over and get into that line, you’ll make your flight easily,” the woman said to Shirley, and then walked past. Relieved, Shirley wasted no time crossing the room, and got into the small line. It was moving quickly, she noticed. What a relief!
When she looked back at the line she had left, it was still not moving. And she saw no sign of the woman in the uniform. Why had she singled out Shirley from among all those passengers? No one else had been told to move. In fact, no one around her seemed to have noticed the woman at all.
“I made my flight and was able to kiss my mother goodbye and to hold her hand until she went to be with Our Lord,” says Shirley. “I’m convinced the woman in the uniform was my guardian angel. How beautiful is that?”
