Revelations

    When we moved to the house in Valley Falls, my mother, homeowner now, furnished and decorated as best she could.  On the wall above my parents' bed was hung a holy picture, rather elaborate, gilt frame and all, a large picture, surely not purchased but most likely handed down from the acquisitions of my mother's brother Timothy.  He, as a young teenaged boy, worked to support the family after his father died at the age of 31.  Timmy worked cleaning up the various buildings in Troy that were destroyed by fire, and there were many;  as part of his pay, or in lieu of, he would be given what was left over, whether food from a grocery store fire, or religious artifacts if a church went up in flames.
     We had recently moved and I had just started first grade.  Dorothy was 18 months younger, so she was probably only 4 years old when one day I saw her standing on the bed, looking at the picture, and saying the words: "Angel of God, my guardian dear, to whom God's  love entrusts me here, ever this day be at my side to light and guard, to rule and guide."  I was surprised; she evidently had some store of information that I didn't.    I didn't know how she had learned that prayer because that was not one of the many that my mother had taught us.  I remember after she got down from the bed, climbing up and looking at the picture and seeing the verse written beneath the picture of the angel, a Guardian Angel most likely, because it was equipped with spread wings.  I must have been able to make out the words because I recall being astounded that Dorothy could read, and recite with meaning as well.  I never told anyone nor did Dorothy I'm sure.  Parents were too busy surviving in those days to track their children's intellectual development, or measure their academic prowess. 
     Dorothy had an affinity for angels throughout much of her life.  When the love of her life contracted what was to be a fatal illness, and his health was fading fast, she swore she saw his angel as a sign that death was approaching.  She even wrote a poem about it, which is in my house----someplace.
     When Thanksgiving Grace was said this very evening, her young nephew, enumerating things to be thankful for,  expressed gratitude for  having a Guardian Angel.   Memories live on.