I woke up sweating. Then I closed my eyes and I saw my mum and dad hugging me and telling me they would give me strength. I wasn’t alone. It was incredible. In that instant I knew I was going to do it. I felt calm and in control and surrounded by love. I wasn’t doing this alone. My parents who had been through so much with me were with me now.
In the hours that followed I had my moments of weakness, especially when things weren’t going well or my son was playing up. But every time I felt tempted to grab a cigarette a voice in my head, my mother’s voice, asked me how a cigarette would help make things better.
With the help of mum and dad I got through the first and hardest day. After that, as the nicotine passed out of my bloodstream I felt it being replaced by a new sense of energy and fun. Before I quit I was smoking 50 cigarettes a day. I feel more alive now. I am tasting food for the first time. I can smell the flowers again. I feel young, like a child learning everything for the first time: how to drive without a cigarette, how to talk without a cigarette, how to see the world around me without a cigarette. It’s like being finally freed from a cage. Being a non-smoker means breaking free. I used to be a slave to cigarettes and they controlled my life. Now, I enjoy fresh breath, more money, dating non-smokers, a cleaner home and no more stale smell in my car. I look forward to my new life and, best of all, my son will no longer have to breathe in second-hand smoke.
The only good thing that I got from all those years of smoking was this great feeling of victory I got when I finally quit. I couldn’t have done it, though, without the love and guidance of mum and dad. I know they are still with me every step of the way. They are helping me live out my intended years instead of coughing myself to an early grave. Supported by their love, I am a non-smoker today and will be a non-smoker for the rest of my life. The three of us will make sure of that.
This is another story that shows how angels can be messengers and teachers. Samantha, a catering assistant, tells how her guardian angel lightened her life; quite literally.
Light Years Ahead
I was in complete denial. My clothes stopped fitting me – but I just put that down to shrinking in the wash. (Yes, I thought all of my trousers and skirts had shrunk – mad!) I was convinced I was still slim and could eat what I wanted when in fact my weight was creeping up and up. I had to buy clothes two sizes bigger but convinced myself it was the shop sizing, not me.
Thing was, because I had always been underweight, my friends and close family wouldn’t mention it. Eventually, I was at a wedding and joked that I would borrow the bride’s dress for my own wedding and a friend (who was a bit tipsy!) laughed and said I’d be at least two sizes too big for it.
Even this didn’t wake my mind up. The weight continued to pile on. I put on five stone over two years. I was constantly tired and constantly hungry. I couldn’t turn my life around. I was trapped in a cycle of food cravings and overeating.
Then a photograph changed my life. One afternoon as I was sorting out my album a recent picture of myself with a group of friends fell on the floor. I bent down to pick it up. As I did the photograph started to change. It started to age. I saw lines and wrinkles appear on my face. I saw myself getting older but what made the picture so disturbing weren’t wrinkles, but my ballooning weight. I got heavier and heavier in the picture; so heavy I had to be wheeled around in a wheelchair by my friends. Then I heard a gentle voice saying, ‘This is one possible future. You have the power to change it.’ The voice didn’t frighten me. Instead I felt calm, strong, prepared. I knew what I had to do. It was time for me to take control of my weight.
Since that day I haven’t looked back. I signed up for a weight-loss class and within a year I got down to my target weight of ten stone. Today I continue to eat healthily and exercise daily. I could never go back to the way I was. I love being slim again. I love buying clothes that fit me snugly and I love feeling good about myself. Of course, there are times when I’m tempted to indulge but my guardian angel’s gentle voice comes to me loud and clear. It reminds me that I am loved and that I deserve a healthy and happy future.
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