Guardian Angels are said to be surrounded in golden light. This is how we can know when an angel is our guardian angel. I didn't know this until I researched guardian angels many years after the angelic event narrated in this hub article.

This account is intricately involved in circumstances surrounding my mother's illness. Mom developed cancer, went through operations and treatment, but the treatment destroyed her immune system.

As a result, Mom was left incurably wide open to any and every infection, and she developed peritonitis. Out of necessity and unfortunately this angelic event unavoidably involves this down note; but the finale and the phone call that followed the experience are astounding.

If interested, there's a poll associated with this hub article. And if further interested, thoughts, insights and opinions are welcome in the comment section.

After Mom developed peritonitis, she moved in with one of my brothers (the brother in ***The Supernatural Being article). He and his wife owned the East Coast home located 2,000 miles from me, but Mom had her own living quarters with a foyer that had a staircase to the bedrooms on the second floor.

They shared a covered but otherwise open front entry way, and each of their front doors were on either side of the open entry way.

One October evening my brother called me to let me know Mom's medical check up that day was very bad news. She was expected to live only about 18 months longer. That was tough to take and he and I commiserated.

After that call, Mom and I visited a lot more by phone and we managed to get a couple of physical visits in after my brother's phone call and before the guardian angel event.

A few nights after the phone call when everyone else in my Midwest household was asleep, I watched a segment of the TV series "Watership Down" and ran my business receipts during commercials.

I was enjoying the movie until I paid attention to the lyrics of the movie's theme song, "Bright Eyes". This was the first time I heard the song or paid attention to the film or even knew about the book. The song title caught my attention because Bright Eyes is my Seneca name.

The lyrics are, in part, about a character in the story whose "bright eyes" failed and closed, about eyes not being able to do what they used to do. The words hit me, and hit me hard because they rapidly moved me from the denial stage of grief surrounding Mom into fully realizing I wasn't able to do something for Mom.

With Mom so far away, it was not possible to be physically with her. In addition, I had three small children under 7 years of age, I was in my first trimester with a fourth, and I ran a business with the children beside me.

I found myself wishing I had fewer responsibilities, or that I lived with Mom; and hearing the lyrics of "Bright Eyes" for the first time brought on a river of tears.

God has communicated with me from age of 7 forward in the most astounding Ways, through private revelations, private prophecies, and visions, sometimes in dreams but sometimes while awake.

He has also answered prayers in equally astounding Ways during times of mega importance to those I am called to pray for, to serve, to care about, to care for and to honor.

But at this point--Mom's time of need--like the words in "Bright Eyes", I felt my "eyes" had "closed and failed". I felt I was not "receiving" information from God. It felt like a "dark night of the soul".

Amid the "water works" and with the lyrics echoing in my ears, I asked God to take care of Mom for me, and I also asked Him why He communicated with me all those other times if I couldn't also help Mom, somehow.

I wondered if all I had been shown and told prior to this night were mere dreams, or flukes, or something.

I also wondered what was the point of being able to discern God's communication before, or ever, if I was not also permitted to help Mom at this time, most especially.

I went so far as to tell God I'd be willing to never receive another "communication" from Him as long as He let me help Mom, if it be His Will. (That did not turn out to be God's Will.)

So yes, the lyrics of "Bright Eyes" thrust me head-long into the next stage of grief: being angry or frustrated and trying to bargain with God.

Nevertheless and starting that moment, I asked God nightly to welcome Mom into eternal life with Him at the hour of her death and to allow me to recognize the Way to accept His Will.

Even so, I felt useless because the lyrics "spoke" to this Bright Eyes, "eyes" I felt had "closed and failed." I wept for a good three hours that October night, pleading to God all the while to let me help Mom, somehow, even though I didn't know how I could . After three hours of pleading and weeping, I was drained and the business receipts went undone that night.

One Friday night in mid-December, or two months later, I was unusually exhausted from chasing the kids all day, putting time and effort into the business with the kids beside me, and (by this time) carrying in my second trimester. I couldn't move a bone. And so, once I put my head on the pillow, I really needed the good night's sleep I was drifting off into.

Next thing I see at a distance is a golden light being. I knew I hadn't woken up, so I knew I was into a dream state.

The being was in a white robe awash in golden light, with a golden belt around the waist. The golden light was awesome but I really didn't care because of my extreme fatigue.

The being kept coming closer and closer to me, filling my vision, my awareness with golden light; yet still I didn't care.

The being looked similar to the drawing. I realize that angels have no gender because they are spirit and therefore, have no need for gender; but this being or angel had very broad shoulders and muscular arms and so, with these attributes, the being appeared to me to be on the masculine side.

In addition, he didn't have "wings". Wings are added to drawings of angels to distinguish them as angels because angels "fly". Actually, they glide, as I found out from this experience.

Oddly, I was not at all disconcerted about this situation, not even about him being in my face. In fact, what was transpiring appeared to me to be par for the course, somehow.

So, when he told me by way of telepathy he wanted me to go with him, wherever that was, I told him telepathically in return I was exhausted and all I wanted to do is sleep. I stopped short of telling him to beat it but did so in so many words, just the same.

But, he kept at it and wouldn't let me sleep. He stood in front of me with all that golden light blazing, bugging me and bugging me. He really annoyed me to no end and I told him so. Long story short, we were into verbal wrestling that seemed to have gone on for hours!

And as if that hadn't been enough, he finally said I had to go with him because, he announced: "There's a child who's lost and the mother is frantic."

...not only as a parent in the general sense, but also because my youngest had gotten into the habit of climbing over the backyard fence; so I had to watch that one like a hawk.

Although the thought of a lost child and frantic mother really got to me, I told the being (and somehow I knew) that he knows where the child is, he knows that he knows this, he knows I know this, he knows that I know I know this and therefore, I told him he didn't need me to go with him. I added that he'd better hurry up and get to the child before something terrible happens.

He then said to me that I'm closest to the child and that without me the child could not be found. I didn't understand that at all; but I checked to be sure it wasn't one of my children, to which he said no.

Realizing he was determined to the point that he wasn't going to go away, coupled with my deep concerns for the child and mother, I noted in the voice of this angel that the spirit of compassion was at the helm (more on "compassion" to follow). Since this was the case, I could see that sleep was totally out of the question and so, I said to him, "OK. Let's go."

...we were out and above everything (or so it seemed), surrounded by his golden light! Oddly enough, like the words to "Bright Eyes", there was a fog along the "horizon" and a strange glow in the "sky". These words came back to me at this time.

This type of experience is often labeled "an out of body experience", which I experienced before this time, but I didn't recall this exact type of experience before; yet, this experience didn't seem at all out of place. I was bewildered but not fearful.

As I was side by side with this being, this angel, gliding through whatever we were gliding through to get to the lost child, it seemed to me to be taking an eternity, and I was becoming increasingly frantic for the sake of both the child and mother. At one point, I asked why it was taking so long. He said, "We will be there shortly."

That calmed me down a bit, but after another long while, another eternity to me, I lost all patience and was about to ask him again--actually, yell at him--when, we abruptly stopped.

I looked around and didn't see any child. I asked, "So, where's the child?"; but as soon as my thought was "out there", our surroundings changed. We were in what appeared to me to be a darkened room.

"You are the child". I said, "What?!"

Then he extended his hand outward, palm up and towards the darkened room; and he added, "And this is your mother."

My eyes followed the direction his hand indicated but all I noticed was what appeared to be a bunched up blanket on a floor; maybe with a pillow under it. I thought, "This is nonsense! And I gave up a good night's sleep for this?", which of course, he "heard".

Then, I noticed the reflection of the angelic light against the wall and I could see the wall color was olive green, like the color of Mom's foyer.  I looked at the room and I could see that it was, in fact, Mom's foyer.

I looked down at "the blanket" again. I thought, "It can't be", but the second I made a move towards it to investigate, I knew it was Mom. Why she was on the floor was beyond me, but I didn't bother to ask. I just wrapped myself around her. She felt cold and wet. I didn't know why she did, but I didn't bother to ask that either. I just stayed with her, and being wrapped around her helped to warm her.

I had no idea how much time elapsed before a bright, white light flooded the room. I looked in its direction and it appeared that one wall of the foyer disappeared into a spectacular, three dimensional panorama.

Against jet-black darkness, there was a group of white lights, like white candles. Their collective light appeared to make their immediate surroundings reflect shades of blue.

One white light moved forward from among them while the rest formed a semi-circle, opened towards my view.

The golden light guardian angel was suddenly beside me. He took my arm, lifted me to a standing position and escorted me a couple of yards from Mom.

The white light angel who had moved forward from the group appeared to glide over to Mom. Neither this being nor the others in the group had wings.

Then, the white light angel lifted Mom to a standing position, leaving the bunched up blanket behind. Mom was in all white.

Then the white light angel escorted Mom to those in the semi-circle. The circle closed protectively around Mom and then, they went towards the horizon.

At the time, I didn't know what this white light angel host finale meant, but the golden light guardian angel was calm and pleased and therefore, so was I.

I woke the next morning and looked at the clock. It said a few minutes before 7 AM; actually, 6:57. I had total recall and thought, "Holy Toledo!. What the heck was that?!" And I noticed that in spite of all that "activity" during the night, I felt extremely well rested.

I was the first one awake in my home; so, over coffee, I wrote down the experience in detail. I was a bit shaken by it and I was very concerned for Mom; but due to her poor health she couldn't have phone calls before 9 AM, her time. So, I had to wait until 8, my time, to call her. If I couldn't reach Mom, I would try reaching my brother or his wife since it was Saturday and they didn't work on the weekends.

As the others in my household woke up, I mentioned the experience and let them read what I wrote. No one else could make any sense of it, either.

At 8, I reached for the phone, but it rang. It was my brother.

He said Mom passed on. After the initial shock, I told those in my household, and each of us glanced at the piece of paper on the kitchen table that contained what I wrote.

It took my brother and me a few minutes before we could continue speaking. Then I asked, what happened.

He said he went to ask Mom if she needed anything from the store this morning; but that was all he could say at that moment. So, between sobs I asked if he had noticed what time she pass on. (As a medical doctor, he is trained to make note of "time of death".) He said he had looked at his watch and it had been 7:57 (East Coast time, same time--to the minute--that I woke up in the Midwest).

After a wail subsided, I asked was she on her foyer floor. After a couple of seconds he asked "How did you know that?"

I continued by asking, was she cold and wet? He asked, "How do you know that too? Were you here early this morning and didn't tell me?" In reply I said, "It's like what happened with the ceiling" (The Supernatural Being article ***). After a few seconds he said, "Oh."

Then he explained that Mom was on the foyer floor because she must have fallen down her staircase during the night; but he and his wife were not awakened by the sound.

He further explained that Mom was positioned alongside her front door, which had a small gap across the bottom and thus, Mom was directly in the cold air.

According to the coroner's report, Mom had gone into shock (thus she was wet), because the fall caused internal injuries and the peritonitis spread rapidly throughout her system, thus poisoning her.

At Mom's wake, my brother said of our mother's last, Earthly moment, "Mom had a peaceful look on her face as she passed on."

Within a few days, I came to realize that the panorama of white light angels had been God's answer to my nightly prayers to Him to receive Mom into eternal life with Him at the hour of her death, that answer being, Mom went with the angels.

Because God allowed me to see Mom's angelic event, He also allowed me to accept His Will, a petition that had also been in my nightly prayers.

In addition, besides learning that golden light angels are guardian angels, in time I re-learned that the Catholic Church (which I belong to) holds to the doctrine that a guardian angel is assigned to each human; and that the three-fold office of the angels is to praise God, to act as His messengers, and to watch over humans. This is, in part, based on Exodus 23: "Behold I will send my angel, who shall go before thee, and keep thee in thy journey, and bring thee into the place that I have prepared. Take notice of him, and hear his voice."

Compassion was at the helm in this angelic experience. It was in the guardian angel's voice. Compassion comes from "mercy". In the Answer to Prayer **** article, "how to pray" is mentioned. Briefly, Christ teaches us how to pray in the Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5-7). In the Sermon, He teaches, "Blessed are the merciful (compassion), for they shall obtain mercy." And God was merciful to me through His answer to my prayers for Mom and for me to accept His Will because God allowed me the choice to be moved by compassion (mercy) for "the child and the mother".

That mid-December night, I was allowed to trust, in total awareness, my guardian angel; or golden light being; or in some circles, "spirit guide". But, "light beings" kind of bring to mind photos of so-called "spirit globes", which appear to me to be merely airborne dust; "spirit guides" conjure up images of tourist, safari and zoo guides; and neither of those two labels mentions "guardian", or "guarding" which, for those with such experiences, appears to be what guardian angels do.

So, I consider the golden light being to be my guardian angel. And whether or not he's happy about it, I call him "Brighter Eyes".

In this experience or event, as with the others in The Supernatural Series (below), there are three key elements:

1) It was spontaneous, meaning, humans cannot make their guardian angels answer them without God's Say-So. He's the Boss and angels worship Him, not us.

2) It contained new information, that's for sure--and lots of it!

3) The timing is WAY astounding and therefore, it's God's Timing.

If you'd like to share why you chose one of the four answers, please feel free to do so in the comment section.  

*** The Supernatural Being

****Answer to Prayer

ALSO:

The Thanksgiving Miracle Story, from the Heartland of America, The Symbolic Dream, September 11, 2001 (9/11) and Private Prophecy, The Supernatural Voice, Life After Death