Heartsick and in a state of shock I sat at my desk unwilling to believe I had
just lost more than a year's worth of research. The research, a compilation of
personal true stories, was slated for my second book on angels and Heavenly
intervention. That day I had intended on making a back-up copy of my files and
was distracted by phone calls. Thinking I was all done I placed old files into
the trash on my computer and emptied it. Within seconds I realized what my
distraction had just cost me. I had inadvertently deleted all the files.
My stomach felt ghastly and fighting tears, I called out to my husband, “Shawn,
if I empty the trash on my computer, is everything really gone?”
I know he heard the distress in my voice because he was up the stairs in
seconds, “What's happened?” he asked.
I tried to explain what I’d been doing but somehow had gotten mixed up and
deleted all the files, rather than just the old copy. Then I sat there in a
state of shock.
The lost “angel file”, this collection of powerful and uplifting stories, was
from writers in a number of different countries and by losing the file I lost
not only the material but all the contact names and addresses. With the file
gone, there was no way to back track and ever locate those same stories. I was
devastated, not believing that with one simple click, I had committed such a
costly blunder.
Shawn sat at the computer searching for the missing files. We have a program
especially designed for locating any file within the system. Shawn provided the
program with the name angels and the response indicated that “0” (zero ) files
existed. He checked through systems but nowhere in the system was a file hiding
called “angels”. In fact nowhere could the word “angels” be found. It was as if
the entire file had never existed. He turned and looked at me, “I'm sorry honey,
there's nothing there.”
I looked at him, fighting tears and speechless. I thought of the hundreds of
stories, among them some priceless gems. These stories needed to be read by
others. They could help ease the pain of grieving for some and give hope to
others. I silently pleaded with God for assistance.
Shawn gathered me into his arms. “I'm sorry honey, the file is gone. There's
nothing.”
When he left the room, I sat in front of my computer, not willing to let go of
the hope that somehow this stuff would show up. I went through the same steps
that Shawn had just performed but the response still came back, “0 files found.”
Again I thought of the importance of the many stories, their ability to ease the
pain of hundreds and maybe thousands of people and I continued sending out my
distress signal to the only power I knew who could make things better, God. So
for the third time I used the search program to find the deleted files and this
time instead of zero the finder indicated there was a file called “Angels On
Earth”.
Daring to hope that my prayers and been answered I shouted for Shawn. I was
paranoid about taking the next step and actually clicking the mouse. Shawn sat
at the computer and in moments we were staring at this huge file. All the
stories were there. Everything that I had deleted had been returned. Awed and
overwhelmed with a full feeling of gratefulness I sent up my silent words of
“thank you.”
“I guess we just didn't scroll all the way up the first time,” Shawn offered as
an explanation.
“Sweetheart, you saw it was gone. You saw the Find program tell us more than
once that the file did not exist. Shawn I prayed for help and got it.”
Shawn just smiled at me. “I'm glad it's recovered honey,” he said.
There are some things that we just don't argue about. We each have our own
opinions and thoughts. Personally, I think I just got mail from God.
Ellie Braun-Haley copyright 2002
shaley@telusplanet.net
Ellie is accepting submissions for her upcoming book. Stories must be true
personal accounts. She looks for stories about angels, Near Death Experiences,
Death Bed Visions, stories that demonstrate the power of prayer, After Dearth
Communications and others. Because a number of people have changed their e-mail
addresses in the past two years she asks those people who have a new addrress
and who have submitted a story to please contact her with the new address. Or re
submit the story. More information by contacting Ellie. Contact her by e-mail
shaley@telusplanet.net
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