Angels in Herbert’s Life
By Howard W. Gabriel III

It was a calm Saturday afternoon and I was visiting with one of my neighbors and his little great-granddaughter. Herbert E. Fangslicer was an older but very fine person. His great granddaughter was very inquisitive on this fine day, pondering heavy issues for one so young.
“Grandpa, do you believe in angels?” she wondered. “Have you ever been helped by one? Have you seen any angels?” she continued.
“Whoa!” laughed her great-grandfather, who gave the whole matter some serious thought. “Now I’m not saying there are angels, but I’m not saying there aren’t angels,” he remarked. “But I can tell you about things that happened to me, if you like.”
“Oh yes, grandpa, tell me everything!” she pleaded.
I could only smile at the beautiful, sincere, young lady as we all sat down on chairs. I too wondered what Herbert would have to tell. He was known around the neighborhood as a great story teller. Sometimes folks had trouble deciphering truth, from exaggeration. Perhaps that’s a noble feature of a great story.
Anyhow, the old man began to tell events as he thought about his life. I have recorded the events as best I could for you dear readers as follows:

#1: First, he recalled how as a youngster he took swimming lessons from the Red Cross. At one point he got overwhelmed by weakness in the middle of the pool. It was toward the end of the lesson and he was very tired. As his strokes got sluggish he began to swallow and gag on water. There were no adults or other swimmers near by. As he started to panic, he suddenly was leveled out on the water. He glanced around as he successfully completed the length of the pool. His mother had witnessed everything from outside the pool area fence. She too had become alarmed until she saw him smooth out on the water. When she asked him about it, he simply said that he had accidentally gulped some water. However, they both thought about it all the way home.

#2: Next, he remembered another event from his childhood. He was about ten years old and was in the woods with a pal. Suddenly, he felt something strike his upper arm. It really hurt and left a red mark. What happened? Then he spotted a couple of boys coming through the woods towards him. They had been shooting their BB guns and one shot had struck him. He was particularly upset about this accident because only a few years before a friend had been struck in the eye. His friend had lost the vision in his eye. How fortunate he felt at the time.

#3: When Herbert was about 17, he was with a buddy heading for an exciting Friday night out on the town. His buddy was driving a very small automobile. Unfortunately, Herbert’s friend was thinking a bit too much about their fun evening as they approached a major intersection. Herbert sensed his pal did not see the red light. Herbert mentioned it to the driver, but they ran through it. Their car was broadsided and flipped over. Wearing no seat belts in those days, they both ended up sitting on the top of the car which had landed up side down. As they flew through the air, Herbert thought they would both die. The driver suffered only minor scratches, while Herbert was not even bruised or scratched.

#4: In his first year of college he got a chance to go to Mexico a few times with classmates. One time they were returning at 4:00 a.m. and had to travel on a dangerous highway along the coast. He tried to be the driver, but the car belonged to another guy. This person was really tired and Herbert felt he would be the best driver among the group. The car’s owner assured the group that he would play the radio loud to prevent him from falling asleep. For several miles Herbert had worried about this, but he finally dozed off to sleep. Crack! Crack! Herbert came out of his sleep to discover that the car was striking the inside rail repeatedly. This guardrail prevented the car from going into the other lane. Herbert was in the front seat and yelled at the driver, who seemed to be in a trance. The driver’s foot had the throttle pressed down and the car was speeding to their destruction. Herbert then thanked God for not having any other cars on the highway. Then he discovered that the guardrail was about to disappear soon. They were driving on the side of a hill bordering the ocean. The car would go off the road and they would surely be killed. Herbert punched the driver in the face and grabbed the steering wheel. His quick action had saved three lives. It turned out the driver was unresponsive because he had been dreaming that he was awake while driving. Only Herbert’s quick actions had saved their lives. Herbert always wondered if that was all there was to it.

#5: One evening he was driving home from evening college classes in Los Angeles. He got lost among the countless freeways and couldn’t get a sense of direction. After a couple of hours, he grew panicky. He figured that he would either run out of gas or end up in a rough neighborhood. His desperation mounted until he remembered that God had answered his prayers before—not that he felt he deserved any special consideration. After admitting that he was in God’s will at that moment, he saw a gas station. He stopped and pleaded for directions to his apartment. After 3 hours of driving around Los Angeles at night, he admitted to the attendant that he had no idea where he was. The attendant shook his head in amazement. He then told Herbert that all he had to do was turn left at the next intersection and go a few miles until he came to the street where Herbert lived. Herbert was three hours in darkness, before reaching light.

#6: A few years later, Herbert was driving in a winter storm in Oregon. It was icy road conditions and difficult to see. Darkness had begun and Herbert was looking for a place to pull off the road safely. Suddenly he thought he saw someone in the middle of the highway. He hit the brakes and tried to adjust the car. He traveled off the highway and went down the side some 30 yards. Herbert said what he thought would be his last prayers. Only 21 at the time, he thanked God for a wonderful life. The big car he was driving came to a sudden stop and Herbert was not hurt. He slowly opened the door and got out of the car. Soon he discovered that giant boulders were on both sides of the car. Somehow the car had traveled down the steep embankment and came to rest between two boulders that were nearly the size of his automobile. This in darkness! Herbert was glad it hadn’t been daylight since the thrill of landing between the boulders may have given him a heart attack.
Some travelers saw his lights go off the road and yelled to him. He said he was fine and he climbed up the 30 yard embankment as the snow continued.
When the tow truck came later, the driver was incredulous. He told Herbert that no one parks between such large boulders. Furthermore, there was a lake about a hundred yards down the road. If Herbert had gone off at that point, they would have found him the next spring! That’s what people discovered there each spring.

#7: A year later Herbert found himself driving in the darkness of rural Wisconsin. A big truck was bearing down on him when suddenly he started losing the control of his vehicle. A blow out! He had no idea of what was on the side of the road, but he had to go there. As he came to a stop, the large truck roared by, almost striking Herbert’s vehicle. In the dark he managed to put the spare tire on as cars and trucks raced by. There was little margin of space and he thanked God as he returned to the highway.

#8: The next year Herbert was renting a nice apartment on the third floor of an old house in Michigan. The landlord had mentioned that Herbert would probably smell smoke throughout the day because they were converting their heating system from coal. Fangslicer smelled smoke all morning as the landlord had predicted. In the early afternoon, he planned on taking a nice long nap. Something told him, however, to go look out the back bedroom of his bedroom. He stuck his head out the window and saw a man running across the field toward the house. Very strange, thought Herbert. Then Herbert heard the man yelling fire, fire! Herbert peered down and saw the flames approach him, almost reaching his nose. He called the fire department and saved the structure. He lost his entire wardrobe, but not his life. It was a fair enough deal, according to Herbert.

#9: Only a year later, Fangslicer was driving along a rural Utah highway, when his alternator went out. The headlights of his car were fading fast and once again he was trailed by large trucks. He could barely see the side of the highway in the darkness. There didn’t seem to be anywhere to get off the road. As the lights dimmed to nothing, he saw a small clearing. He went for broke and drove off the side. The truck tailing him blew his horn, but didn’t stop to help. Herbert slept in his car that night. The next morning a couple stopped and took him to a distant garage. It was reassuring to know that there were nice people.

#10: A short time later, Herbert E. Fangslicer was in Utah. He sure got around. One winter night there was a power outage during a storm. He had to do a lot of reading and so he thought of candles. He lived in the trailer with a large dog. Putting some large candles in a metal container, Herbert created enough light to read. Unfortunately for Herbert, he worked too late into the evening and fell asleep. Out of his deep trance came the feeling of something striking his face. The candles had melted and the wax had become a flame so high that it reached the ceiling of the trailer. The dog was pounding Fangslicer’s face. Herbert awoke to the huge torch. He managed to let the dog escape outside but spilled the hot wax on his foot. Using his fire extinguisher, he put out the fire. He applied wet towels to his burned foot and drove to a hospital where they diagnosed second and third degree burns. Throughout all of this Fangslicer wondered why he had let the dog sleep inside that horrible night. Most of the time, the dog slept outside. On this evening, he had decided to let him stay inside. It had saved his life.

#11: Three years later, Herbert was driving along a city boulevard while being upset about one thing or another. He day dreamed. At some point, he decided to make a left turn from the right lane, not noticing a fast moving car in the inside lane. Smack! The two cars collided. Somehow, little damage was done and no one was hurt. The police officer couldn’t understand! Herbert wondered, too.

#12: Only about one year later Fangslicer was parked in traffic when an out of control large vehicle broadsided him and his father. They usually used smaller vehicles, but by a whim had decided on a larger car with a very solid frame. They were struck with such force that their vehicle’s tires were broke as the car went from the street to the sidewalk. They both suffered whiplash to their necks. Again, eyewitnesses were amazed that they weren’t hurt worse. Herbert was thankful.

#13: Several years later, Herbert experience shortness of breath for a number of weeks. He finally turned to the care of physicians and hospitals. He was told that he only had a week or so to live. A serious open heart surgery was required. The professionals thought it would help him, if he survived the operation. Herbert said his prayers and went through this difficult time, at peace with himself. And he survived!


The great granddaughter threw her arms around him and said, “Grandpa, the angels love you as much as I do. I’ve got to run, I’ll see you soon.”
Then Herbert faced me and sighed, “There are many others I could have told her, but who has time.”
Who, indeed.