Anyone listening to the radio around Christmastime 1993 would have heard me singing about angels. As part of the group Alabama, I was proud of our hit \u201cAngels Among Us.\u201d<\/p>\n
I got hundreds of letters about that song over the years, and I cherished every one. From time to time, I sit at my desk, surrounded by records framed on the walls, and read them.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis song is a blessing,\u201d one woman wrote. \u201cI truly believe there are angels among us!\u201d I believed it too. In fact, if it wasn\u2019t for one of those angels on earth, I would have had a very different life.<\/p>\n
Back home in rural Alabama, none of the kids I knew finished high school. When you were struggling to make ends meet day to day it was hard to imagine your life being anything else.<\/p>\n
My junior high teachers said a degree would help me get a good job, but my daddy needed my help on the farm now. I dropped out of school.<\/p>\n
A year later I returned\u2014but not as a student. After a day working in the fields, I put in a couple hours doing janitorial work. If any of the teachers or staff thought it was odd, they didn\u2019t say so. Except Mrs. Ellis.<\/p>\n
Reading over my letter, I remembered the day the principal confronted me while I was sweeping up. I caught sight of her bright red hair as she marched over to me. \u201cOwen,\u201d she said in her scratchy voice. Why would a straight-A student drop out before high school?\u201d<\/p>\n
All my good reasons for dropping out disappeared at the sight of Mrs. Ellis. \u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d I mumbled.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs an educator, wasted potential offends my sensibilities,\u201d she said. \u201cIt\u2019s about time you went back.\u201d<\/p>\n
And juggle farm work with my studies? Besides, I\u2019d been away for over a year. I could never catch up!<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ll have your transcript tomorrow,\u201d she said. \u201cTake it to Fort Payne High School and get enrolled.\u201d<\/p>\n
I leaned back in my desk chair and looked around. Gold and platinum records lined the walls. It made me think of a different office\u2014the principal\u2019s at Fort Payne High. I stood in front of his desk watching him go over my transcript, a college degree framed on the wall behind him.<\/p>\n
\u201cLook, son, however well you think you did in junior high,\u201d he said, eyeing my farm clothes with suspicion, \u201cyou\u2019re too far behind to catch up now. Go back to the fields.\u201d<\/p>\n
I thanked him for his time and went to my janitor\u2019s job. I tried<\/em>, I thought as I washed the floor. School just wasn\u2019t meant for guys like me.<\/p>\n \u201cOwen!\u201d Mrs. Ellis came marching down the hall. \u201cYou\u2019re supposed to be in high school.\u201d<\/p>\n When I told her what the principal said her face got as red as her hair. \u201cFollow me!\u201d<\/p>\n A minute later I was in yet another principal\u2019s office, Mrs. Ellis\u2019s, only this time I wasn\u2019t the one getting yelled at. Mrs. Ellis was willing to fight for me in a way no other teacher had. \u201cYou want that transcript sent registered mail, you\u2019ll have it!\u201d she said, slamming down the phone.<\/p>\n The principal had to let me into the high school, but he didn\u2019t like it. \u201cIf I see you in my office even once,\u201d he told me when I showed up for my first day, \u201cit will be your last day at Fort Payne High.\u201d<\/p>\n As I opened another letter, I hummed \u201cAngels Among Us\u201d to myself. \u201cI believe there are angels among us\u2026to show us how to live\u2026to guide us with a light of love.\u201d<\/p>\n Mrs. Ellis had surely done that for me. Even after I got to high school I relied on her to get me through. Like the day in math class when my teacher caught me chewing gum.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n \u201cMr. Owen,\u201d he said. \u201cYou will expectorate your gum. And from now on, you will sit in the front row.\u201d<\/p>\n The class snickered as I made my way to the blackboard. I wanted to run right back to the field. I was big. I was strong. I belonged there. No matter how much I loved to learn, I didn\u2019t belong in school!<\/p>\n As I spit out my gum in the wastebasket a hundred smart remarks ran through my head. I could lay this guy out with one punch<\/em>, I thought. Sure, I\u2019d get expelled, but who would care? Not my math teacher. Not these other kids. Not the principal\u2014<\/p>\n Mrs. Ellis would care<\/em>, I thought. Mrs. Ellis believed in me. Quietly, I took my seat in the front row.<\/p>\n I faced an even bigger challenge in my next class. When I got there, the class bully was dangling a smaller boy out the second story window. \u201cPull him back in,\u201d I ordered.<\/p>\n The other kids got quiet. \u201cWho are you?\u201d the bully sneered.<\/p>\n A fight would get me kicked out of school. I knew Mrs. Ellis was counting on me to graduate. But I also knew Mrs. Ellis didn\u2019t give in to bullies. I\u2019d seen that the day she told off the high school principal.<\/p>\n This kid dangling out the window needed someone to stand up for him the way Mrs. Ellis had stood up for me. Lord, please don\u2019t make me have to fight him.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cWho am I?\u201d I said. \u201cI\u2019m the guy who\u2019s going to kick your tail if you don\u2019t pull him back inside.\u201d<\/p>\n Maybe I\u2019d managed to channel some of Mrs. Ellis\u2019s authority. Maybe my guardian angel stepped in to back me up. Whatever the reason, the bully gave in without a fight. He pulled the smaller boy back through the window just in time for the teacher to arrive. I took my seat.<\/p>\n Maybe I can make it through high school<\/em>, I thought for the first time. Maybe I do have potential.<\/em><\/p>\n From that day on, I started thinking about the future. I imagined what I\u2019d like to do with my life, what I could do with it if I worked hard enough. Oh, it wouldn\u2019t be easy. There would always be things standing in my way.<\/p>\n But there would also be people like Mrs. Ellis, good people who cared and were willing to fight to give me a fair chance. I loved studying in school\u2014maybe I could go to college. I loved to sing\u2014maybe I could do it on stage.<\/p>\n Suddenly I had a whole life ahead of me I hadn\u2019t known was there. Not until Mrs. Ellis showed me how to fight for it.<\/p>\n I never dreamed I would one day be sitting at my own desk, surrounded by gold and platinum records\u2014and my own college diploma hanging on the wall. I\u2019ve tried to use my success to help others reach their potential.<\/p>\n It\u2019s what Mrs. Ellis would do. She\u2019s still showing me how to live, and guiding me with the light of love, a real angel among us.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Anyone listening to the radio around Christmastime 1993 would have heard me singing about angels. As part of the group Alabama, I was proud of our hit \u201cAngels Among Us.\u201d I got hundreds of letters about that song over the years, and I cherished every one. From time to time, I sit at my desk, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":29220,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"ep_exclude_from_search":false,"footnotes":"","_ppma_block_editor_authors":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":false,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"","_twitter_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type":"","_pinterest_share_type":"","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"","_medium_share_type":"","_threads_share_type":"","_google_business_share_type":"","_bluesky_share_type":"","_mastodon_share_type":"","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"","timeOption":"","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":""},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[377],"tags":[171,72,80],"ppma_author":[1186],"class_list":["post-21124","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-emotional-and-mental-health","tag-earth-angel","tag-stories-of-faith","tag-stories-of-hope"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n