Have you ever wondered whether angels exist? Many people believe they do, while others don’t. Well… they really do exist, but only the most honest and kind-hearted humans can see them, feel them and talk to them.
Often we cannot explain why things happen, yet there is always a reason that, most of the time, we do not see.
My name is Kiko, and I lived a true story in which angels were by my side. Sadly, I only noticed it at the very end.
One of the best people I have ever known was my grandfather, Mario. He was born in a small town where the sun shone every day. It was full of little houses, and every Sunday the main square came alive with a fair and a market. Everyone in town knew each other, and every Sunday at four in the afternoon the most important men in town met for coffee at Cofame, which had the best coffee in town. Manuel Lobo, Mario’s father, drank his coffee there, and later Mario did too.
From the time he was a little boy, the angels watched over Mario, because he was a child full of love, kindness and honesty. He had so many virtues…
Close to the Great Decision
Every 100 years, the angels had to make a very important decision: choosing 25 people on earth. Five of them would become angels, ten would become the angels’ helpers, and the rest would become a kind of animal or alebrije, in charge of guiding and accompanying the angels.
The angels had a queen named Hiroshi, which means generosity. There was also a congress whose main job was to choose the people who would soon become angels. The one in charge of approving this decision was Selim, a name that means safe.
I guess you are wondering why I point out what their names mean so much. The reason is that each name is given according to the personality the angel had while living on earth as a human. And let me be clear: every angel was once a human being, but they do not die in their life as angels.
Time had passed, and not only were the angels getting closer to their great decision, but Mario had also grown up and graduated in agronomy. He was now working away from his hometown, in one of the biggest cities in his country, called Medellín. There he worked at an agricultural company called Singam, where he met the woman who would become his girlfriend: the company’s draftswoman, whose name was Yolanda.
Mario was not only harvesting the fruits of the earth; he also had a very successful life, because he loved his work and enjoyed life to the fullest. His work brought him joy, and he was also about to make a big decision: he wanted to ask Yolanda to be his wife…
Meanwhile, the angels kept a close eye on my grandfather and had him among the 100 people nominated to become an angel. But… could my grandfather feel the angels? No. He would never be able to feel them until he was in heaven with them.
The Hard Truth About Heaven
A long time had passed by then. Mario was married to Yolanda and had finished a master’s degree. He also had three children: Inti, the eldest; Mei, his daughter; and Luc, his youngest son. And that was not all, because Mario, my grandfather, was now in the United States doing a PhD, together with his three children and his wife.
The big day had arrived! At last, the angels would choose the people who would go to heaven and become angels. They had gathered and had already chosen a couple of people. Each angel made proposals and gave their opinion. Sometimes it caused a bit of chaos, but other times they all agreed, and that person was chosen.
After quite a while, they had chosen all those who would become alebrijes and the angels’ helpers. They had also chosen three angels, and for the fourth, one of the angels said, “Let’s choose Don Hernán,” a kind-hearted surveyor, and everyone agreed. Finally, Selim said, “I haven’t given my opinion yet, but I think this is the perfect moment to give it.” The angels whispered among themselves, saying things like “Selim shouldn’t give opinions, only approve,” but he ignored them and went on: “Who better than Mario Lobo, a person who brings joy, who loves and enjoys every minute of life, who loves helping others and has such a big heart? He deserves this opportunity.” Once again the other angels whispered, but this time one of them, named Ciclamor, said, “We agree. Together we have decided that there is no better person to take that place.”
To close this moment, Selim drew up a document with each of the chosen ones and, finally, took a magnificent seal out of a golden drawer and sealed the document so that nothing could be changed. The decision had been made.
Going back up to heaven, let me tell you a little about the process the angels had to follow to take humans to heaven. First, you need to know that when humans become angels, they remember their life as humans, but their body changes, because the angels only take their soul with them. It is a difficult process, because the angels cannot take them in a matter of minutes, but over years. They take them in a way that we humans know as an illness: Alzheimer’s or dementia.
I think you are starting to understand this story a little better, the one that I, Kiko, went through and lived. But don’t worry, I will tell you the whole truth about these “illnesses,” because they are not really illnesses: they are the angels.
The Beginning of the End
Several years had gone by, and Mario had five granddaughters, all girls! I am one of them, the eldest. Then comes my sister Máia, and then my cousins Mariana, Luciana and Fabiana.
Meanwhile, the angels had already started taking some of my grandfather Mario’s memories, so that he would not be afraid or feel strange. However, since the angels had only just begun their task, my grandfather was a little scared, because he realized he no longer had his usual clarity.
My grandfather began by forgetting what he had eaten, what he had done or where he had gone that same day. He also forgot or mixed up the names of friends and relatives, but he still had a wonderful sense of humor, even if sometimes he told jokes wrong or repeated them over and over, thinking it was the first time. Even so, he made us laugh, not always because of the jokes, but because we knew he was telling them wrong, and they turned out so bad they were funny, because they made no sense.
I loved talking to him, and I didn’t mind if he told me the same stories three times in the same conversation, because that way I could never forget them. He gave me advice and told me stories from his childhood. My grandfather also loved to see us laugh, so one day he said, “If you ever want to laugh, just let me know and I’ll make you laugh out loud.”
Well, these are some of the experiences we lived while the angels stole a tiny piece of that thread of memory every day. Behind it all, though, we felt sad and afraid, because we knew he was leaving us little by little.
The angels took his memory and kept it in a brown box with black edges.
More Forgetting
Many of you might wonder why going to heaven and being very happy comes at such a high price, and why it requires going through so much sadness. It is because turning a human into an angel, or taking them to heaven when they die, is not easy. You cannot simply take all their memories and their soul when they die, because these are such pure souls that it takes time to pass from one dimension to the other, that is, from human to angel.
Meanwhile, my grandmother and my mom had been searching all over the city for specialized places to treat my grandfather and for him to live there, because by then it was becoming very hard for us to manage on our own… each day the angels were stealing Mario’s memories and soul faster. He was losing awareness, and his reality was changing in unexpected ways.
The angels had begun erasing many relatives from my grandfather’s memory, like uncles and cousins, but he still recognized us and was happy to feel us close. Even so, for a few moments he would erase us from his memory, because the angels were stealing a memory that we were part of.
The worst began when my grandmother called us at home in despair, telling us that Mario was hallucinating and shouting at her very loudly. His awareness was fading, so we had to call a couple of doctors, who later took Mario away in an ambulance, with my mom by his side.
Amid so many changes, we got the wonderful news that Mario’s first grandson was on the way. Now there were five granddaughters and one boy, named Max. My grandfather was able to enjoy the news in his last flashes of clarity.
The Last Christmas
Always remember that no matter how much sun there is, one day the storm will come; no matter how beautiful the day, night will eventually fall; and no matter how great the joy, sadness must also exist. That is life: full of inexplicable things, full of unknowns, of things we do not understand and questions that time will always answer for us.
That awful day had started full of joy, because it was Christmas and we had gone to a novena with Mario. He was very happy: he sang, danced and laughed. He was already very ill, so we never knew how he would react or behave in each situation. I swear it was the last time I saw him smile, sing, dance and be happy.
After that day, Mario became very agitated, because once again the angels were stealing his memories, and we had to take him back to the hospital. You cannot imagine what happened next… what the angels call “the final stretch” began, when they take away a person’s speech, and later their walking, their eating and, finally, their breathing.
Mario was very ill, but despite everything, he always gave a smile to those of us closest to him.
A Beginning in Heaven
As you can imagine, Mario was gone. Well, his body was still here, but he no longer even opened his eyes; he was very ill and on oxygen.
The angels sent us a sign to let us know that we had to say goodbye to my grandfather forever. It was a call from one of the doctors, who told us we had to decide whether to take Mario off oxygen, because his body no longer responded to any treatment and he could not breathe on his own.
We went to the hospital knowing it would be the last time I would see my grandfather. I could not understand why something like this had happened to him, or what would become of me without ever seeing him again. Through my tears, I whispered in his ear that I loved him very much and thanked him for teaching me what a grandfather was, because he had been my only grandfather.
The angels took him three days after that goodbye and sent us the little brown box where they had kept his memories, but now with his body turned to ashes…
In the days that followed, I kept asking myself why something like this had happened to my grandfather Mario, such a good person. Over time, I have realized that thanks to his big heart he had earned a place in heaven. Now he is an angel who watches over each one of us.
All I have left to tell you is to enjoy life, just as my grandfather Mario did. He was a person who shared his wisdom and had infinite kindness.
Never forget to look on the bright side of things, and remember that life is not only beautiful roses, because it is the storms that teach us to appreciate summer.
