She was attracted by the twinkling stars in the sky which seemed to dance on the snow in this yard. Alighting onto a smooth snowy surface, she rested. It had been a very busy night. First making sure a small girl was safe, then making sure a plane landed right. Angel business picked up at the Christmas celebration time. Even the very greenest recruits were put to work on those nights. First in and first out. They actually had the most experience with humans and the ability to relate to their needs and fears. The very lucky ones got to see the people they had so recently left. She was one of those. She did not really remember that she knew this place. Only when she landed and was looking into the eyes of her son.

Then she remembered. She remembered baking cookies and making his breakfast. She remembered how he liked to sleep and how hard he worked. She would wake him, saying "Breakfast is on the table, come and eat, then you can go back to sleep for 15 minutes." How he had relished this on a cold, winter morning. He would not be late for school. She would not let him.

Then she would go to work. Athlyne cooked and baked for the school children. Some days her food was the only good food they ate. Some were poor and some were rich, but each was cared for here. She gave this hungry one an extra helping. She did not waste the food. She knew what it was like to be hungry. She had as a child rode out to the country from the city with her father and sisters, to steal in farmer's fields. She knew what turtle tasted like and wild things like squirrel. So when she saw their open faces, full of light and wonder, she served an extra helping of homemade pie and stew.

She did not like her routine changed. She took what she could and made her own life. Athlyne did not want her son to leave it. She did not want to stop caring for him, even as he grew older. Each woman who came into his life, was an interloper. No one could care for him the way she did. She understood him. She loved him.

Then a strong woman came along and rocked her world and her son chose this woman over her; his own mother. It took years to calm herself and accept her diminished role and power, she finally conceded defeat. It was just in time to be a grandmother, and bake more cookies and make more food. When they were away on a trip out west, she called them on their phone at home. She who spoke little, left a long message telling them how much she loved all of them.

Soon after, Athlyne began to tell her son of an angel who would visit her, he would tell her many things. Things she had not understood in her life, why she was the way she was. How she lost her mother too soon and did not really understand that love was not possession, but he said, " You have learned. You have done well. It will soon be time to go home." So each time the angel visited, she shared this with her son. He began to worry for her state of mind, but as strongly as she insisted everything else in her life, she insisted he was real. "His name is Adamena. Yes, I think that is what he said. I know it. It is okay that you do not believe me, but I want you to know, he is real. It is all good, soon I will be with my mother."

His father had died years earlier of cancer. She had been kind of distant and yes, even wicked to him. They were not speaking. Then when he lay dying, she finally wrapped her arms around the reality of it. She was losing someone who she had loved and who had loved her. She could not bully her way with this any more, she had to accept what she could not bend or control. Finally when it was too late, she burst into tears and understood. He had loved her, in spite of what she did to be tough and strong. She finally understood and grieved for what was lost.

Adamena  was at once male, but also womanike, he was strong like she was, stubborn, he understood this woman who was also manlike. Who was this woman ruled so harshly out of fear and loneliness? He understood her suffering as a child and her need to control and cling to what she believed would always be hers. When he came for her at last, she was laying in a hospital bed, struggling to live through her last moments. Her daughter in law who she so greatly resented and fought, was at her side praying for her. 

Admena recognized the daughter in law and smiled brightly. It was her great capacity to love that brought this dying woman peace and fulfillment in her last years, also an understanding that she could love and be loved without being in control of all the details. This daughter in law had opened the gate to eternal life in heaven, because in fighting back, she had turned the tide for her mother in law, she had shown her balance and love, unconditional and somehow, that she too could have peace.

So as she watched her son admire his work, hanging the Christmas lights on his house, she understood why she was sent there. It was to see once more his joy in living, his family around him, his completeness. This love which he had recognized for himself, would not have been possible without her love, she had first taught him what love could be. Her love was safety, strength, nurturing, his father had taught it as intelligence, depth, reliability and  his children had taught it as innocence, trust and forbearance, as they tested him on many levels. Lastly his wife had taught all of it as trust, humour, patience and caring. She had gathered it all in the "package".

Athlyne was shown by Adamena at death, her place in heaven. She was ushered in by him. Through his efforts she returned as an Angel at this time to see what she had recently left with new eyes, as a special gift. Her reward was great, she experienced the fullfillment of her mothering, all gone good, not wrong. She could know and rest until her next mission on earth, perhaps in hundreds of years to come, that her work and her "package" were safely and successfully passed on.

Her son did not see the bright light, only the small stone angel and it's shadow knew it. The stone angel was Athlyne hiding and Adamena was shining the brightness on her success. Only the grandson, who captured the scene on film, thought of his grandmother, suddenly smiling and remembering the Christmas cookies she used to make, he snapped the picture. Adamena let him keep some of the light.

Happy Holidays 

Copyright 2010 by SheilaTGTG55