There are many, many instances in my life where angels have been watching over me and have intervened to help, but there was none so great as the night they saved my daughter’s life.
Eight years ago, Adam was told by my father (from the other side) to warn me about my daughter and to “watch her” because she was going to be “the one” with serious problems. That seemed surprising to me as she had always been the straight, “good kid” and I never gave it much thought afterwards. However, years later, I found her at a party drinking and had been in denial about the extent of her acting out. As any good parent, I kept closer tabs on her in an attempt to keep her safe.
A few nights after her eighteenth birthday, she called after work to say that she was stopping up to Buffalo Wild Wings to see a few friends. I told her that it since it was already 10 PM, I expected her home shortly. Once the clock hit eleven, I called and began leaving her messages that it was time for her to head home. She didn’t answer. I called many times until, in exhaustion after a long day, I fell asleep.
The only way to describe the following is to say that I had been in a deep sleep, but suddenly, wildly, with almost a grip in my heart, I flew up wide awake at 2:40 am. I can say it felt like “GET UP” had been screamed at my subconscious.
I immediately ran down the hall to her room, realizing that she had never checked in to say that she was home. Her bed was empty. I put my coat on and ran out the door while calling her cell. It went straight to voice mail over and over and over again. I told her older brother to keep calling it and I got in my car, praying for assistance to help find her.
As I drove by Applebee’s on Ulster Avenue, I spotted her car. Abandoned. It was now raining and I was in tears, frantically trying to reach her by cell. As I begged for help, a police officer “just happened” to be driving by and I flagged him down. My son was able to get through to her phone. A man answered. He wouldn’t say where they were. I called, while the police were there, and when he answered I found the strength to stay calm. He said that she was “sleeping” and that he’d put her in a cab. I convinced him to give me the address and the police and I flew off to get her.
Thank God. Thank my angels. She was completely unconscious when we arrived. An ambulance took her to the hospital and the man was arrested for giving alcohol to an under-aged person. Her alcohol blood level once at the hospital was an unfathomable .40. The doctors were baffled as were the detectives who worked the case. This was a LETHAL DOSE of alcohol. LETHAL. They were able to care for her and bring her back to health. They could not believe that she was alive and that all of her organs were working. They said it was a miracle.
SHE WOULD HAVE DIED HAD I NOT GOTTEN THERE. Had this creep let her “sleep” as he said, the toxicity of the poison in her system would have killed her.
I was exhausted. How did I “suddenly” wake up at 2:40 am, find her car, find a police officer and get her to the hospital? There is no doubt in my mind that angels, just as I had sung from the time I was in third grade, were WATCHING OVER ME.
Jolie Dunham
