Blood Angel

From Daily Encounter by Dick Innes

In 1949, my father had just returned home from the war. On every
American highway you could see soldiers in uniform hitchhiking home to
their families, as was the custom at that time in America. Sadly, the
thrill of his reunion with his family was soon overshadowed. My
grandmother became very ill and had to be hospitalized. It was her
kidneys, and the doctors told my father that she needed a blood
transfusion immediately or she would not live through the night.

The problem was that Grandmother’s blood type was AB negative, a very
rare type even today, but even harder to get then because there were
no blood banks or air flights to ship blood. All the family members
were typed, but not one member was a match. So the doctors gave the
family no hope; my grandmother was dying. My father left the hospital
in tears to gather up all the family members, so that everyone would
get a chance to tell Grandmother good-bye.

As my father was driving down the highway, he passed a soldier in
uniform hitchhiking home to his family. Deep in grief, my father had
no inclination at that moment to do a good deed. Yet it was almost as
if something outside himself pulled him to a stop, and he waited as
the stranger climbed into the car. My father was too upset to even ask
the soldier his name, but the soldier noticed my father’s tears right
away and inquired about them.

Through his tears, my father told this total stranger that his mother
was lying in a hospital dying because the doctors had been unable to
locate her blood type, AB negative, and if they did not locate her
blood type before nightfall, she would surely die. It got very quiet
in the car. Then this unidentified soldier extended his hand out to my
father, palm up. Resting in the palm of his hand were the dog tags
from around his neck. The blood type on the tags was AB negative. The
soldier told my father to turn the car around and get him to the hospital.

My grandmother lived until 1996, 47 years later, and to this day no
one in our family knows the soldier’s name. But my father has often
wondered, was he a soldier or an angel in uniform? Sometimes, we never
know who God will bring into our lives to carry out a special mission,
nor do we know whose lives God will have us touch.