A Little Angel Love: Spread Happiness and Inspiration, with Help from the Angels. Jacky Newcomb

       I really believe that this is a sign that he is still with me or that an Angel is aware of my sadness and is trying to help.’

      Jayne believes that this baby was being looked over by her own guardian angel as another feather appeared.

      AN ANGEL WATCHING OVER A NEW BORN BABY GIRL

       ‘One of the mums at the school where I work gave birth to a little girl who almost immediately had to travel to another hospital, without mum, for a heart operation.

       A few weeks later mum brought her elder daughter to collect her baby sister from hospital. There was a complication though. The doctors were very concerned because there appeared to be a bowel problem and the family were told their precious daughter would have to face another operation.

       We were all worried but I was lucky enough to get the opportunity to hold the little girl. I believe in angels and whilst I was holding the baby I noticed how small and frail she was. But I knew she was being looked after when a single downy white feather floated down a few feet away and landed on the ground. I realized the angels were with us. I’m pleased to announce that the little girl has since started gaining weight and is very healthy…oh, and the bowel complication was a false alarm!’

      Feathers are well known as angel calling cards. Everywhere I go people love to tell me about their angel feather stories. One surprised lady found a feather in her saucer under her coffee cup and another lady found an angel feather in the freezer at work. One feather turned up in a previously unopened plastic shopping bag at the supermarket. It seems the more unlikely locations feel more like real angel encounters. You would be surprised at how many people carry their feathers around with them. I’ve been shown feathers in purses and wallets, in little pouches and stuck to pieces of cardboard and carried around in handbags!

       Are all feathers angel feathers?

      Angel feathers are a powerful reminder of angelic presence and people hold their own ‘messages’ close to their hearts. One lady has an angel feather jar and collects these little treasures everywhere she goes. Another contact told me about her feather box which she keeps by the bed and feathers are often stored in people’s jewellery boxes and hat boxes! I often wonder why some people have quite so many feathers. Do you think that by keeping these angelic mementos it encourages more signs to come their way? I feel sure it does.

      Recently, I have been teaching a regular angel class in my local town. The group had been together for many weeks and with Christmas fast approaching I promised them that we would do an angel related Christmas craft on the final night.

      I had the idea to create some laminated bookmarks and collected a few bits and pieces together. I placed the felt pens, sparkly paper and angel confetti together in envelopes and placed everything in a single box. It was then that I decided to collect a few feathers together so that people could laminate them directly into their bookmarks.

      It was too late for me to contact people to bring their own angel feathers so I decided to drive to a local village where swans frequented the banks of a little stream. Just as I had hoped, the banks were covered in white feathers but sadly they were all wet and muddy from the recent rain. I was determined to collect some though and reached far down the sides of the bank to collect the best ones that I could—nearly falling in a couple of times in the process, I might add.

      As I was collecting them I had the strange thought that all my hard work would be wasted and the feathers would be forgotten or something. I decided to put the thought far from my mind and carry on regardless, so I collected plenty of these soggy feathers.

      When I got home I was upset at what I had collected as there was no way these feathers were beautiful enough for the task I had in mind. There was nothing for it but to wash them all! I tipped them all out into the bathroom sink and filled the bowl up with water. What seemed like half a bag of soil immediately fell to the bottom of the sink and I had to refill the sink—and again, two or three more times. Time was moving on and I had to dry these feathers, and quickly.

      Grabbing a pair of old tights I carefully piled them into the toe and set about drying them with my hairdryer. Several of them flew out of the tights as I had not pushed them down far enough, and the feathers started flying around the bedroom. Were there going to be enough? It was funny, but I was too busy to laugh.

      As I sat on the edge of my bed in despair I noticed a feather stuck on the side of my pillow—perhaps I could pull a few feathers through the side of my pillows and add them to the damp pile of feathers I had besides me? The feathers were a funny selection of shapes and none of them were very pretty. What on earth was I doing? But this was part of my craft, and so I plucked a few more through the side of the pillow and shoved the whole lot into a plastic sandwich bag and put them carefully into the box along with the other craft items.

      With only moments to go, I got into the car and drove to my destination. As I carried my box from the car to the door, I silently laughed to myself as a large white, perfectly curled feather sat on the doorstep of the shop, so I picked it up to present to the organizer and owner of the shop as a gift on my way in.

      The group were already waiting for me as I rushed through the door and the organizer had kindly brought along some wine and mince pies…very festive. We were set for a fun night. When it was time to begin the craft, I began telling my story of the feathers, and how I had nearly fallen in the stream. Everyone giggled as I told them how I’d had the premonition that I would somehow forget the feathers, but that I was safe in the knowledge that they were tucked at the bottom of my box.

      You can image my surprise then, when I lifted out all the craft items and put them onto the table. The feathers were nowhere to be seen! Embarrassed, I went back out to the car to see if I had dropped them on the way or if perhaps they had fallen out, but I didn’t find them.

      I must have forgotten the feathers! But no one seemed to mind and carried on with the craft regardless. I contemplated the situation as I watched everyone enjoying their craft and then I realized why the feathers had disappeared. The answer came to me in a blinding flash! These feathers weren’t angel feathers at all, but swan feathers! Real angel feathers appear when we most need them and I’d gone out of my way to create a false situation. My intent was pure but just the same, these were not real angel feathers.

      You know I never did find the feathers that I’d worked so hard to collect and I searched everywhere at home when I got back. Are angel feathers just ordinary feathers that we happen to find when we are out and about? Apparently not! Angel feathers are gifts from our loving protectors. ‘Any old feather’ (even if they are very beautiful) just won’t do!

      I couldn’t resist sharing this one last angel feather story with you.

      IRENE’S ANGEL

       Irene had always believed that she had her own guardian angel but she never really thought much about them until she began reading about them in magazines. Irene started to search the internet to see if she could find any stories about them, and after a few months she began to understand more and wanted to believe she really did have an angel watching over her.

       Irene is a nurse at Wycombe Hospital, and one morning when she was getting her car out of the garage to go to work, she says that she could not believe her eyes when she opened the car door. On the actual hinge of the door there sat a lovely white feather! Irene felt that the feather must have been placed there as there was no way that it could have got there on its own, and it would have blown off when she opened the door.

       About three weeks later Irene’s car was broken into at work. The window was smashed and part of the radio was taken. But Irene believes that her angel had been protecting her by ensuring that she was not in the car at the time. She says that it might seem a strange thing to believe but she feels sure that this is the truth.