There are angels among us.
Call me a crackpot, label me a looney bird, but I believe without doubt in guardian angels.
Two weeks ago, my dear uncle and his family were traveling through Europe. They picked up his daughter, who is enrolled in an international program at the University of Milan and had planned to make a week–long tour of some Italian cities. Their first stop, though, was a little town in Northeastern France called Revin, where they spent time visiting our cherished cousins who live there.
On Tuesday, March 22nd, after a beautiful two-day stay with the French family, my uncle, his wife, and their three children drove the hour and a half from Revin to Brussels and were going through airport security when a bomb exploded just below where they were standing. Had the bomb gone off just three minutes earlier, they would have basically been standing right next to it.
Their lives were defined by the minutes’ difference between stopping for a cup of coffee or not.
The mayhem that ensued just after the explosion is imaginable, but what happened to my aunt, uncle, and cousins later is not something I can easily wrap my head around.
As they ran away from the security area, a sound my uncle described as a stampede fell upon their ears. When he looked over his shoulder, he saw a mass of people hurtling toward them. His main concern was getting away from the crowd and keeping his family from being separated. Suddenly, a woman appeared just ahead of them and said, “Follow me.”
My uncle wondered for a split second where the woman had come from but didn’t have time to question. She took his youngest daughter’s hand and led them down a secluded corridor where it was only the five of them and her. The detour eventually led them out to the tarmac area where they, along with this helpful stranger, boarded a bus that would take them to the other side of the airport. They were the only ones on the bus, and after getting off, they couldn’t figure out where the woman disappeared to. They never saw or spoke to her again.
This woman, whatever her identity may be, was there to bring comfort into the terror, to show love and guidance within the mess that hatred had made.
To shower peace over my scared baby cousin.
To lead my family to safety in a way that ensured they stayed together.
Could she have been an airport employee? Sure, she absolutely could have been.
But, I don’t think she was.