The Guardian
She was three months pregnant, starving
and physically exhausted with the battle of living a life that was day after
day an uphill battle to keep her head above water. The credit cards bills that
she had used to simply get by were enormous and she had continually robbed
Peter to pay Paul. She could not figure a way out, she had no true friends to
help her, no parents to bail her out and no spouse or boyfriend for moral
support. To top it all off her druggie boyfriend of the past five months took
all of her remaining cash and he ditched her by simply disappearing off the
face of the planet. She had been evicted from her rented room because she could
not pay the upcoming rent and had been living in the streets for weeks. She had
tried begging for money but people avoided her in her bedraggled state. She
could not bring herself to prostitute out her body in fact, she thought she’d
rather die first than to degrade herself in such a manner. Now in the months to
come, she would still be in the same predicament with an added person to take
care of and be responsible for. Her last job had fizzled out when the business
had gone under. Finding a decent job was impossible because of her lack of employment
skills and no one was hiring since times were tough for everyone in this
recession.
She sat on the curb and began crying in abject
despair her inner light was at its absolute dimmest. People passed her on the
sidewalk, not a one of them seemed the slightest bit concerned why a nineteen year
old girl would be sitting on the curb crying her eyes out as dirty water ran
over her feet from the flooded streets into the sewer. She didn’t even care as
she was contemplating killing herself. She pulled a box cutter knife from her back
pack which contained the last of her earthly possessions and placed the point
against her skin. How could she raise another human being when she wasn’t even
capable of taking care of herself and she wasn’t even worthy of living herself?
No one would even notice if she bled to death there on the sidewalk! She drew
the knife across the flesh of wrist pressing firmly with the intent to slice
open her vein. Nothing happened. The knife was so dull that it was completely
useless! She could not even successfully kill herself, so she flung the knife
out into the street. As she took the final steps toward the bottom of her
despair she made up her mind to step out into the street in front of a car or a
bus. She attempted to stand wobbling unsteadily on her feet as a wave of
dizziness engulfed her. As she considered her new found focus to step in front
of the next vehicle she stared down the empty street for the right opportunity
to present itself to her. As soon as the light changed she would step into the
front of the garbage truck that was first in line at the light. It was perfect
because she was the trash that needed taken out.
Suddenly a hand grasp her arm gently and
she dropped her gaze to the ground while the owner of the hand guided her away
from the street. When she raised her eyes to see who had taken her hand and
guided her away from the street all she saw at first was the purest pillar of
light in the place of a human being. The light made her feel safe and loved.
She blinked and there before her was a bent old man with gray hair smiling at
her. The old man offered to buy her breakfast and walked with her to a nearby
diner. As they ate the man asked her to tell why she had been so close to
taking her life. The girl explained her predicament to him as he listened
carefully allowing her to feel her grief and pain while she cried. When the
girl finished the old man smiled and told the girl that God had sent the girl
to help him in his time of need. She was puzzled so he explained to the girl his
current predicament of being alone and diagnosed with cancer. He asked the young
girl to live with him if she would help with things as he grew weaker. The
young girl agreed and thought it would only be a temporary fix to her problem,
but at least she could carry her baby to term and give the child away for
adoption so that she would not be responsible for taking another person’s life.
She spent nearly a year with the man caring for him in his modest home. As time
went by her despair left her and she became the young woman she was meant to
be. In the months to come peace filled her heart as she focused on his care,
administering his medications, fixing his meals and cleaning his house. She had
her baby there during that year and the old man loved holding and watching the
baby girl. She cared for the old man as he grew weaker doing all she could to
make his last days on Earth those of peace and joy. The baby brought joy to his
eyes every time he looked upon the child and the young woman grew to love the
old man as if he had been her own father.
One night just weeks before her year’s
anniversary of being saved from her despair, the old man passed away. The young
woman cried with the grief of losing a loved one. She contacted his lawyer as
he had left her a note telling her that his lawyer would take care of all the
funeral arrangements. She decided to stay at the house through the funeral
knowing afterwards she would be in the streets. No one attended the funeral except
the girl, her baby, a priest and a lawyer. After the funeral the lawyer came to
her and told her she needed to hear what the man’s will said. She went with the
lawyer to his office and he read the old man’s will aloud to her. She was
shocked as the old man had left her the house and millions of dollars. It was more
than enough money for her to live comfortably for the rest of her life, so much
more that she decided to open a shelter for young people who were in a
predicament similar to the one she had once been in. The shelter offered rooms,
jobs, food and schooling to give the people skills to become guardians to
others. The torch had been passed from one guardian to another. The girl had turned
into a young woman that walked the streets with her angel child looking for other
great beings of light that knew not what they were. Whenever she found them,
her own light shone its brightest.
