RONALD—I was walking to school in Michigan, I was 11 years old. We walked to school back then, I know that sounds like a cliché today, but it’s true, back then a lot of us walked a couple miles to school and we never thought twice about it.
This truck pulled up beside me and this weird guy started talking to me and my sister through the open window, and he tried to get us into his vehicle. I started running away, but he chased me.
He jumped out and got me on the ground, and I didn’t know what that man was going to do to me. In a few seconds, this other guy came out of nowhere and yanked my attacker off me. My rescuer was wearing plaid, like a lumberjack, and he looked like Santa Claus. He threw my attacker to the ground and told me to “Run!” So I did, and when I stopped to look behind me, there was nobody there. The Santa guy in the plaid was nowhere. For years, I’ve tried to figure out what happened, but I have no answer.
PHYLLIS—I was 40 when I found out I had stage-four cancer. I was in the hospital after chemo because I got so sick. The doctors told me I probably wouldn’t live. That night in the hospital, I was sleeping pretty soundly when I saw this woman standing beside my bed. At first, I wasn’t sure if I was dreaming or not. Maybe I was, I don’t know. The woman told me not to be afraid, because I was going to keep living, and I was going to have four grandbabies. Today, I am 78 years old, and I have four grandchildren. I have never told this story to anyone before.
MATT—When I was a kid, nobody had cell phones or anything. So that makes this story almost eerie to me. I was with my cousin and we were building a treehouse in the woods near Winchester, Virginia, about a mile from my house. I fell off a tall branch and hit the ground, and I landed on a two-by-four with a nail that was protruding from it.
The nail punctured my lungs. But, lo and behold, my mother was standing right there, watching me fall. She never came into the woods. I couldn’t believe she was there. It was so unusual to see her there.
Mom took me into her arms and ran me a mile back home. My mom was a small woman, so it was pretty impressive to run a mile with an adolescent kid in her arms. She drove me to the hospital and when I finally came to, I asked why she was in the woods that day. She said almost an hour before I fell, a man came to her window and told her that her son was about to have an accident, and she had better check on him. This strange man led her into the woods, straight to us, and if it hadn’t been for that stranger, I might have died.
LAWREN—My family was rafting the Nantahala River. Just me, my husband, and my two sons. We stopped and let my boys out right before we went over the fall. When we went over, my husband was jettisoned from the raft and left me to paddle a six-man raft along. I was scared and didn’t know how to get to shore. Up ahead were class-four rapids where the U.S. Olympic kayaking team was training. I was freaking out when I heard a voice behind me say, “Paddle!” I turned around and there was a guy with long dark hair and beard in the raft with me. We paddled like fiends and got the raft to the bank. When I turned around to thank the man for his help, he was gone. When I told my boys the story, they said they didn’t see anyone in my raft. I still get chill bumps thinking about it.
CRYSTAL—My mother was in a car accident on a remote highway, here in North Carolina. Her car fell into the river and she almost drowned. She remembered ramming the guardrail, and she remembers going into the water. She remembers being stuck in her seat when the water was coming up to her chin. But she remembers nothing else after that.
Somehow, the paramedics found my mother lying next to a tree. There were footprints in the snow when they found her, as if someone had been there, but no sign of anyone. My mother kept babbling that her guardian angel had saved her. “My angel saved me,” she kept saying to us. I have no idea who saved her. I don’t even believe in angels. But, you know what, my mom does. And maybe that’s the lesson here.
ME—Don’t tell me they aren’t real.
57 comments
Trent - January 24, 2023 11:05 am
Amen! ✝️🙏
Tracy McLaughlin - January 24, 2023 11:46 am
I believe too, Sean
Believer - January 24, 2023 11:59 am
I had an experience much like the boy in your first story. I was six years old, and walking to school alone. But my angel was an elderly woman who saw what was happening and yelled out her second story window for the man to leave me alone. I never saw her again. I believe too.
Kim H. - January 24, 2023 12:08 pm
I DO believe in things like this, and reading this made my cry!! Thank you Sean, for passing along these to your readers! This isn’t the first time you’ve posted stories like this, and I believe them! EVERY. SINGLE.ONE. God IS real, and IS watching over us, even when it seems like that isn’t the case. God bless you, Sean!!!
LaVerne Rikard - January 24, 2023 12:26 pm
Beautiful and inspiring stories!
Svetlana Lang - January 24, 2023 12:28 pm
Thank you, Sean. Yes, they’re real.
Dolores - January 24, 2023 12:37 pm
Out of His great love and mercy, the Father can surely send angels to our aid. I’m often tickled about how the angels choose to appear, like Santa in a flannel shirt. They must have a sense of humor. I’m sure it makes for lively conversations once they return to heaven. And then there are the shy ones who deliver a message and vanish. Or the even humbler, who only leave footprints in the snow.
PS Matt and I share the same hometown. NYC might be the Big Apple but we are the Apple Capital…or we once were. It’s a sad sight seeing agriculture leave the Shenandoah Valley.
Karen - January 24, 2023 12:43 pm
I needed this today. Thank you.
denise - January 24, 2023 12:57 pm
I believe in angels, God, prayer and miracles (I am watching one now). They are all real, Sean. Look around you with an open mind and some faith.
Yo - January 24, 2023 1:02 pm
While attempting to make a very tight u-turn one night (after Church of all things) I realized the old Windstar’s turn radius couldn’t make the turn and I would have to back up. Meanwhile two lanes of fast-moving traffic were suddenly upon me from behind. I had no time to do anything but close my eyes and prepare for the impending impact. Seconds later, sans impact, I opened my eyes and, to my amazement, saw multiple red blinking lights on some sort of large vehicle behind me (which I could not make out in the dark), which had stopped two lanes of oncoming traffic, allowing me to back up and be on my way. I always put the “White Light” on me and my family to protect us in travel, and I believe something was protecting me that night.
Priscilla Rodgers - January 24, 2023 1:17 pm
I believe. Thanks for sharing.
mccutchen52 - January 24, 2023 1:18 pm
Like you said. “Don’t tell me they aren’t real”. Because I won’t believe you
Linda Lewis - January 24, 2023 1:31 pm
I love these heart-warming stories. They make me feel good all day.
Middy - January 24, 2023 1:33 pm
Absolutely love your columns about angels! One hundred percent believe they are real. Keep the stories coming!
David in California - January 24, 2023 1:36 pm
There’s so much we don’t know. Thanks for sharing these stories.
Cynthia - January 24, 2023 1:51 pm
I would love to hear “the rest of the story,” as Paul Harvey would say. What happened to the sister of the boy in the first story when he ran away? What happened to the husband who was “jettisoned” from the raft?
Sheri K - January 24, 2023 2:01 pm
I love true mystery stories where there is no earthly explanation. God and His angels are the only answers. Thank you Lord for your many blessings!
David Britnell - January 24, 2023 2:20 pm
I believe there are angels among us! Thank you for sharing Sean.
Anne Arthur - January 24, 2023 2:21 pm
This column comes just in time. Last night, my grandkids and I were discussing angels, and they do believe that they are real. Tonight, I will read these stories for them and know they’ll love it.
Dawnie B - January 24, 2023 2:33 pm
🎶 “Praise God, from whom all blessings flow!” 🎶 🙌🏼 ❤️
jblackburn34 - January 24, 2023 2:38 pm
Duh, Of course there are angels. Some of them are even named in the Bible. They have different jobs but they are there to always protect us or bring messages to us from God or to fight Satan. Never doubt we go through anything alone.
Sonya Nightingale - January 24, 2023 2:41 pm
When I was 22 I was giving a ten of volunteer service at our childcare home in Arizona. 4 of my friends came to see me and we hiked down into the Grand Canyon and stayed for night. The next morning we were hiking back out and their white dog approached us. Since I’m terrified of dogs because of having been bitten when I was little we tried to shoo him away but he stayed right with us. So we kept walking. As we turned a corner on the trail there was a whole pack of dogs coming at us snarling and growling. We girls froze and this white dog got in front of us. I don’t remember what he did but the pack of dogs all disappeared. He followed us for awhile and suddenly he was gone. There was no place for him to go but he was just gone. We believe he was our guardian angel that day.
Fran - January 24, 2023 3:00 pm
They are real, thank you for sharing these
stories!!!
Fletcher Harvey - January 24, 2023 3:40 pm
My grandmother always said,”don’t knock anything you don’t understand!”
Tracy - January 24, 2023 3:42 pm
I most definitely believe in Angels!!!!
rdo333 - January 24, 2023 3:46 pm
Beautiful stories that I believe are real for God works in ways that we can not understand but He does.
Peggy M. Windham - January 24, 2023 3:47 pm
Wow! Unbelievable what God can do! Unbeknownst to us He performs miracles every day! Thank you for sharing this amazing stories!
Krista - January 24, 2023 4:14 pm
I was sitting in a hospital hallway, anticipating a very serious and uncomfortable test, scared and nearly crying because my family couldn’t be there. A short dark man dressed like a nurse came up and said, in a voice like a drill-seargant’s: “My name is Bullock. Jesus loves you and you’re gonna be okay.” I didn’t see him again while I was there.
SJHL7 - January 24, 2023 4:19 pm
Awesome stories to let us know He is always with us!
Carla Walrath - January 24, 2023 5:08 pm
Love, love, love!
redheadedsandee - January 24, 2023 5:10 pm
I loved this post so much!! Years ago, my small children and husband were canoeing a river in Dahlonega Ga, and while paddling to the outpost shore to retrieve our camping supplies, we turned over and my son and husband were catapulted out and my 3 year daughter somehow remained in the canoe, but I stupidly stood in front of the canoe trying to hold it while the river tried very hard to pull me under. All of a sudden I hear a voice, “give me the baby and move away from the canoe” Just that command, nothing else, I looked it over and it was a elderly lady sitting on the shore in an old time lawn chair from the 60’s. I don’t even remember giving her my girl, but I did and then went after my son & husband. The folks that ran the outpost came down the steep hill to the river when they heard the commotion, there was no “Granny” and no one saw her come up the hill. This was 30 years ago and we still speak of this amazing encounter with one of His angels. I’m sure of it to this day! 🙂
virginia westlake - January 24, 2023 5:42 pm
Incredible!
LIN ARNOLD - January 24, 2023 5:48 pm
There have been numerous times over my nearly 70 years that I’ve had those “someone above was looking out for me” moments. From minor things like, “Don’t forget you have that cornbread in the oven” to “You need to stop at this rest area & go to the bathroom” & I helped a much older woman get into the bathroom and use the toilet. (Her husband was just too embarrassed to take her into the ladies room.) On the way out, I showed them the handicapped restroom where he wouldn’t be out of place.
But the one that will always remain vivid in my mind took place back in the mid-70’s. I was driving from Montgomery, AL, to Chattanooga, TN, for work. It started raining cats & dogs just north of Montgomery on I-65. An 18-wheeler pulled up next to me but then slowed up and fell in behind me. This was back in the era when everyone that spent much time “on the road” had a CB radio. The trucker broke for me and asked what the devil I was doing out on the interstate in such horrible weather. I told him I was doing the same thing he was doing, working. He asked where I was headed and I told him “ChooChoo City”. LOL!! He called out to another trucker and told him to slow up so he could catch up. So, I drove the rest of the Chattanooga escorted by these 2 wonderful truckers. The normal 2 1/2 hour drive took over 5 hours. But these 2 ushered me all the way to my exit in Chattanooga. No one will ever be able to convince me that I didn’t have guardian angels looking out for me.
Angels are with us all the time. We just have to learn to listen.
Karen - January 24, 2023 6:10 pm
There are angels everywhere.
Michael A. Craig - January 24, 2023 6:17 pm
Sean, last summer I was hiking above Breckenridge, Colorado, at about 12,000 feet. I am 81, and the two friends I was with are 56 and 48. Ami, the 48 year old woman, was an athlete but also a woman of faith, as am I. But I have always had a problem with accepting the fake faith healers on tv. We came across a 90 foot field of huge, jagged and sharp rocks that had to be crossed going up the slope of the mountain. The other two made it across okay. About halfway across, as I attempted to balance myself from rock to rock (should have had a walking stick for balance or gone over on all fours), I lost my balance and fell. Not fell down. Fell down the mountain through the air and crashed into the rocks on my right side. A sheet of immense pain shot up my right side. When Ami reached me, I remember saying that my right shoulder was broken, and my right pectoral muscle was torn, and I didn’t know where I was cut. The other friend with us was thinking that he would have to get a helicopter to me off the mountain. But Ami was no excited, she put left hand on the broken shoulder and lifted her right palm to the sky, invoked the name of Jesus and the Holy Spirit and prayed for me for 3 minutes. Then she told me to stand up, and I did. There was no pain, no anything. And she helped me across the rest of the rocks. That night we went to dinner and discussed it. Ami had never seen anything like that, had never done anything like that and hasn’t since. She said she was simply a conduit for what Jesus did. When I got back to Houston, I checked with a doctor and had x-rays. Nothing. The doctor was puzzled and said, “You say you are 81 and fell down the mountain onto rocks? There’s nothing wrong with yoyu.” I have seen many indirect miracles in my life but never experienced one like this. I do believe in faith healing and miracles now. My faith has a deeper meaning, as well. Thanks for your column on this.
Susie - January 24, 2023 6:37 pm
I can identify with many of these stories. I had a similar experience with what many of you would choose to call an “angel”. Years ago, I was needing to take a test in order to be considered for a job. I had already been working in the job as a temporary hire, so I knew what the job entailed and was already aware of the fact that it was a job I enjoyed. So, in order to pass the test, I needed certain math skills, that being word problems and algebra. My mom, having been an algebra teacher, tutored me in the recall part of what I had previously learned years ago, in high school and college. It came back to me pretty quickly, with her help. The only problem then, at that point, was the test phobia I had developed since graduating college. As test day approached, I became more and more anxious about this problem, of which my mom was also aware. Test day came. TIMED TEST. EEEE GADS. Varied subjects/areas were on the test that I had no problems with. So far, so good. About half way thru the time, here came the math section. I read the first problem, no biggie, then as I went on, the problems became more complicated. Couldn’t get that one. Move on, I told myself. I did. No dice. Started to panic. TIMED TEST, in the back of my thoughts. That made it worse….and fast, including the fact that out of about 10 people who had started taking the test with me, only three of us were still at the test table. Panic doubles. Soon, another person finishes the test and leaves the room to turn it in. Soon, as my panic has rendered me feeling beyond hope, I am, at this point, teary and sniffling. This goes on for about 1 minute. The person still left in the room with me gets up from her end of the table, and hands me a kneenex. I take it and nod. Still panicking. Losing all hope, waiting for time to be called. All-out tears. She rises again and comes over to me, and asks me if I will pray with her. I wanted to say, please leave me alone, but didn’t. She said a prayer, then went back and sat down. I thanked her. Long story, short….(too late)…..I started to slow, deep-breathe, reread each problem, and slowly was able to figure out the problems to my satisfaction that they were probably correct. After the fact, I think it was once she realized I was calmed and able to concentrate, and was near finished, that’s when she left the room. I remember finishing the test PROBABLY about 20 min after “time” should have been called. I turned it in and asked about the last lady who had left the test table about 5 min before I did. She had already left. I wanted to thank her again. Some would choose to call this lady an angel. Indeed, I could understand that. OR, the fact that somebody cared that I was having a tough time maybe is what calmed me and got me thru it. Another VERY POSSIBLE explanation could be that my mom, who was not above putting a bug in someone’s ear about my test phobia, “took the bull by the horns” as they say, and clued in someone ahead of time about my phobia, perhaps letting them know she had tutored me and she knew that I KNEW the math. If that was the case, my mom was ALSO the INSTIGATOR “angel”. 😂👍❤️. There is usually more than one explanation, if one is “open-minded” enough to look for one. OPEN-MINDED being the key word here. None of us really KNOW. IT’S OK TO HAVE FAITH; MORE POWER TO YOU, WHATEVER GETS YOU THRU. IT’S ALSO OK TO HAVE DOUBT. EACH TO HIS/HER OWN. Freedom OF religious beliefs ALSO includes Freedom FROM religious beliefs.
Lynn - January 24, 2023 7:19 pm
All around us. All the time.
Jennifer Bain - January 24, 2023 7:31 pm
When reading stories like this I always think about the Alabama song, Angels Among Us. They are here.
Angela Edris - January 24, 2023 7:40 pm
I was 21 years old and 8 months pregnant. I was cut off from my family and friends by the man who forced himself on me. One night, after another violent fit, I had managed to escape and drive away. I went to the local park and sat on a bench by the lake in the dark. I could see and hear a bunch of teenagers a few hundred feet away from me under a picnic pavilion, but no one else. I sat there on the bench praying and sobbing to God to help me. Out of the blue a beautiful white fluffy dog with bright blue eyes came around the bench and sat at my feet. He put his head on my lap and whined. I began to pet him and could feel my fear begin to fade some. All of the sudden I noticed that the dog had a collar and leash on. The leash was being held by a man sitting quietly at the other end of the bench. He spoke to me in such a kind way, asking me if I was okay. I sat there on that bench and told my man my sorry story and the shame I had for being in that situation. He didn’t say anything thru the whole story. The more I talked the more I could feel the fear going away and the more I pet the dog the more the physical pain from the abuse earlier in the night dissipated. When I was done, we just sat there together in the silence. A healing silence: A very pregnant woman, a quiet man wearing a white doctor’s jacket, and beautiful white dog with sapphire eyes. The man stood and I still could not make out his features. Only that he was tall and thin. He gently tugged on the leash, the dog licked my hand and reluctantly trotted over to his master. The man gently said to me ‘Just know that everything will be alright’, and he turned and began walking toward the teenagers still playing around under the pavilion. I watched him and the dog for a minute. A tree blocked my view for a moment and I waited to see them one last time once they cleared the tree, but they never showed. They couldn’t have just disappeared. I waddled over to the kids and asked if they had seen which way the man in the doctor’s jacket with the beautiful white dog had gone. They looked at me like I had lost my mind. ‘Lady, you are the first person we’ve seen tonight.’ My night visitors would have had to walk past that pavilion. I know that God sent me two angels that night to calm me and tell me all would be okay. And it was…
Linda Moon - January 24, 2023 7:44 pm
Okay – I won’t.
Stacey Wallace - January 24, 2023 8:21 pm
Angels are quite real. God sends them to protect us. Psalm 91:11-13 states: “For He shall give His angels charge over you, To keep you in all your ways. In their hands they shall bear you up, Lest you dash your foot against a stone. You shall tread upon the lion and the cobra, The young lion and the serpent you shall trample underfoot.” There you go. Thanks, Sean. Love to you, Jamie, Marigold, Otis Campbell, and Thelma Lou.
Missy Gleneck - January 24, 2023 8:33 pm
Angels hover near….Thank you Jesus
Maggie Priestaf - January 24, 2023 9:50 pm
I love your “angel” stories. I would love to talk with one of these individuals. Thanks again and again, Sean.
catladymac - January 24, 2023 10:13 pm
We sure hope Ronald’s sister also got away from the creep in the truck.
Sean of the South: Guardians | The Trussville Tribune - January 24, 2023 10:19 pm
[…] By Sean Dietrich, Sean of the South […]
epgregg - January 24, 2023 10:20 pm
Doesn’t matter whether or not you BELIEVE in Angels, they are definitely REAL—-and always with us!!
ROBERT STORCK - January 24, 2023 10:49 pm
I believe there are angels among us. Since I first heard this sung by Alabama it has been a favorite of mine. But then I started listening to them sing before anyone knew who they would become. I still believe.
Diane - January 24, 2023 11:07 pm
Never a doubt!
obxhawk - January 25, 2023 12:59 am
My mother, my father-in-law, and then just 1 1/2 weeks ago my mother-in-law each passed away. One from cancer, the other two from “old age”. Each of them saw, acknowledged and even talked to the angels that were present as they died. I couldn’t see or hear them, but they surely were real and brought great excitement and joy to my family in those last minutes. The Bible says they are terrifying in appearance, unless they are sent to minister to a Believer, then they change appearance so they won’t be so frightening.
Yes, they are very real!
Leslie Anne Tarabella - January 25, 2023 1:01 am
I love that you gathered all these stories in one post. They are even more powerful together. I had a similar, yet not nearly as dramatic experience on a dark road in Niceville FL. It wasn’t so amazing until years later when I could appreciate how unique everything was.
Melissa Brown - January 25, 2023 1:14 am
God is real & so are Angels !!!
Suzanne - January 25, 2023 9:30 am
I am an older 75 year old lady now. I, too, have had one such experience, and will never forget it. I was about 36 at the time, and I was on one of my solo car trips to meet up with two other lifelong girlfriends of mine in Nashville. We had a rollicking time in Nashville…concerts, sightseeing, eating good down home Southern food, etc.etc. Then it was time for us to drive back to our hometowns. I was born and raised in Houston, so as I was barreling down an Interstate towards Arkansas and Little Rock, and with still an hour and a half to go, my own personal “every driver’s Nightmare” happened…(especially a single, lone woman’s Nightmare on the road)……..
a tire blowout !! After standing outside my car on the shoulder of the interstate and with the sun going down and the darkness of night coming on, NO ONE, I mean No One, was heeding my frantic waves to stop. 30 minutes passed, and I actually started tearing up and softly crying. I was really scared. I stopped a moment to go back and sit awhile in the car. As I waved for help one last time, then stopped and turned around to do so,
I looked up and there walking towards me were two men and a lady. I could clearly see their truck parked on the shoulder in the dimming evening light.
To round this story up, I will cut it short :
They changed my shredded tire, replaced it with my Donut-tire out of my compact’s trunk. They followed Right Behind Me for the next hour-Plus, until we finally got on a residential street in a neighborhood. They called a Discount Tire place, drew a map for me on a piece of paper. We hugged a lot, and I cried and thanked them alot. I got in my car, and they then and only then turned to walk back to get in their truck. I put the key in the ignition while glancing in the rear view mirror…..
there were no 3 people and a truck behind me. Nobody. Nothing. They had vanished into thin air.
****I knew at that moment and no one will tell me any differently today…..God and three Guardian Angels were “at the ready” to save and help a lost soul like me.****
Patricia Taylor - January 25, 2023 5:33 pm
What a blessing to read this today! I totally bellieve in angels too. The Bible tells us about them and I’ve been protected so many times when it could have gone the other way and I know God sends them to help us. I have a cat named “Miss Kitty.” She showed up in my yard about 4 years ago, looking pathetic, hungry, and on her last legs it seemed. I started feeding her and to make a long story short, me being a widow, I beleive God allowed her in my life and me in hers. One night it was stormy and tornado warnings were screaming out of the TV and radio. I have a storm shelter in my garage, it sits on the floor and Miss Kitty was upset and we both got in it. After a minute she wanted out and I put her out in the garage. A few minutes later, She knocks on the shelter door. I let her back in and held her in the chair with me. With a weather radio screaming out a warning, and my transistor radio doing the same in the shelter, we hunkered down. She seemed upset so I started singing “Jesus Loves Me to her”. I tried to sing another song, but she didn’t seem to like it, so I sang Jesus Loves Me again. Turns out, it is her favorite song! She is an inside/outside cat and has the best of both worlds. I have a big yard and I tell people she has her own “garage apartment” as my garage is attached to my steps going out my back door. She has a safe place to nap/sleep and eat, and lets me know when she wants out by knocking on the door. If I don’t answer the back door and she is outside, she will come to the front door and knock. I’m not saying she is an Angel, but she showed up at a time when I needed her and she needed me. When I am singing Jesus Loves Me to her, and she is wrapped in a blanket, with me rocking her, she sometimes will look up at the ceiling like she sees something I can’t see. I’ve often wondered if it is not angels hovering above us. Sorry for the long post..it is hard to put in a few words…
Ronny Mr. Whitaker - January 26, 2023 5:16 pm
When crossing the railroad track at my house on a 95 horse power farm tractor, we were hit by a freight train and knocked some 25 yards mid-air, I walked away without a single injury, that was not luck nor an accident it was grace, it is still happening everyday!
Mary W Kehl - January 27, 2023 5:44 pm
What beautiful messages that show that God is with us, always. Why some receive this and other don’t we don’t know, but thank our heavenly Father miracles and angels are with us at all times.
sjhl7 - March 11, 2023 5:20 pm
Such beautiful stories full of hope and the promise of God’s hand guiding our lives in mysterious ways! I could read these stories all day! Thank you for sharing.
Renee Welton - July 20, 2023 8:33 pm
Miracles♥️