A month ago, I shared the story of a soldier in Afghanistan who was alerted to mortal danger by dropped rosary beads. His grandfather was saved in an earlier battle the same way. But an item in today’s news makes me wonder whether I should look into buying some prayer beads myself.
According to the Daily News, on Tuesday a 22-year-old man named Thomas Magill jumped from the top of a 39-story building in New York City. Postings on his Facebook page suggest it was a suicide attempt.
But Thomas didn’t die. He crashed through the rear windshield of a parked car and landed in the back seat. His legs were broken and he was in critical condition, but the car broke his fall just enough to save his life.
The driver of the car that day, Guy McCormack, has a theory on how Thomas was saved.
Guy had worked as a carpenter at the construction site across the street for three years, driving his car every workday from his home in New Jersey and leaving it in a nearby parking garage. But on the day Thomas jumped, Guy had borrowed his wife’s car. He parked it on the street, instead of the garage. The car that saved Thomas’s life wouldn’t have been there any other day.
What forces made Guy’s routine change, on that morning, of all mornings? Guy found a clue when searching through the interior of his wife’s crushed car. Inside, he found a strand of crystal rosary beads.
Unlike our earlier rosary bead stories, these beads didn’t directly save Thomas… but for Guy, they sure hinted at who did.
Guy told the news website DNAinfo.com that he wants to meet Thomas to talk. And not about payment for the totaled vehicle. The father of four thinks he can help the young man:
“Somebody needs to talk to him, be it me, or somebody else. You never know who you’ll meet, and what they’ll say and how they’ll change your life around.”
