A PROMISE KEPT
The hospital room was quiet except for the labored breathing of the occupant inside. A young woman was finally losing the battle with the disease that consumed her life. For the moment she was alone, her mother having slipped down to the chapel to pray and the nurses had left to tend to other patients. As Erin felt her life slipping away, she thought her greatest fear was to be realized. She would die alone! Too weak to even summon a nurse, tears filled her eyes.
Suddenly the darkened room was filled with the purest light and she recalled the one other time she'd seen that light. It seemed a lifetime ago, the night at camp she had planned to kill herself. And the angels around her had revealed themselves.
"Erin. Don't be afraid. I'm here with you."
The voice that spoke was filled with love and compassion, a familiar voice. Erin looked to the direction it came and softly asked, "Andrew?"
"Yes, Erin. I'm here to take you to God," the Angel of Death replied, stepping closer. As he looked at her, he saw not the young woman but the teenager he had known at the camp.
"So, it's my turn now?" she asked, looking into his green eyes. Although he no longer appeared as the young man she'd fallen in love with, she still saw the tenderness in his eyes.
"Yes. I told you when you confided your fears that you wouldn't die alone. And I always keep my promises," Andrew said, smiling at her.
"Were you with Nikki when she died?" Erin asked, reaching to take his outstretched hand as her spirit rose from the now lifeless body.
"Yes. I was with each of the others. And Rafael came also to be with Melanie, singing her song to her one last time. Now her mother sings it to her in Heaven," Andrew replied as they moved to the door to Heaven.
"I'm not afraid any more," Erin said, looking back one last time at the body on the bed. Turning back to Andrew, she stepped through the door.
