My Guardian Angels

In late August, 2002, I went to the emergency room about 2AM, suffering from a high fever. This is a potentially dangerous situation for anyone on chemotherapy, and I was admitted to the hospital. By coincidence, I was scheduled for a lung function test later that day with Elizabeth, my pulmonary technician. When Elizabeth happened to see my name on a list of patients admitted, she was concerned and stopped by my room. She gave me a little medallion with an angel on one side and the word “Healing” on the back.

I carried that angel with me for three years. All through the rest of chemo. Back to work. Climbing Tumbledown Mountain a year later. In the Midnight Sun Marathon in 2005 for Team in Training. But in September of 2005, I was going though the security line in the Richmond airport on the way to Montana, and my angel vanished! I had dumped my keys, loose change and the little angel in a typical plastic box that goes through the scanner. When it came out the other side along with my shoes and carry on bag, everything was still in the box except for the angel. I held up the line searching for it, but it was nowhere to be found. A wise friend told me later “Maybe whoever took it needed a guardian angel more than you do now.”

I told this story to my friend and TNT teammate Susan last year, and one day she called me at work and said “Let’s meet for lunch!” We were eating lunch outside by the canal downtown, when she handed me a small bag. Inside was a near perfect replica of my missing angel. She asked “Was the one you had like this one?” I told her that it was nearly identical, and was so touched by her gesture. That angel accompanied me every day, and was with me in the Arizona Marathon this past January.

Then, about two months ago, an envelope from Elizabeth arrived in the mail. Inside there was a beautiful note and a new angel token, a little different from the original, but a new guardian angel all the same. On the back, she had had it engraved with “God bless Art.” So now I have two guardian angels! I carry one or both of them every day, and I will carry both on my next marathon.

How can a guy go wrong with two guardian angels? More importantly, how can a guy go wrong with two fantastic friends like Susan and Elizabeth?

My two angels, Susan’s on the left and Elizabeth’s on the right: