Richard Thomas - It’s A Miracle - Real Life Inspirational Stories, Extraordinary Events and Everyday Wonders

HarperCollins Publishers

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London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

First published as It’s a Miracle and It’s a Miracle 2 by Bantam Dell, a division of Random House, Inc. 2001, 2002

This edition published by Element 2003

© 2002, 2003 by Clearlake Productions, Inc., and Questar, Inc.

Richard Thomas asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record of this book is available from the British Library

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Source ISBN 9780007279111

Ebook Edition © MAY 2015 ISBN: 9780008150471

Version: 2015-05-13

Cover

Title Page

Copyright

INTRODUCTION

ROMANTIC PROVIDENCE

First Love

Wrong Number Marriage

Acting upon Fate

Miracle Reunion

THE SPIRIT OF STRENGTH

Jumping Life’s Hurdles

A Father’s Journey

Blind Ambition

ALL GOD’S CREATURES

Boris and the Big Apple

Rupert, the Parrot

Dog Angel

Woman’s Best Friend

REMARKABLE RESCUES I

Second Chance Angel

Lady in the Lake

Avalanche Rescue

Twister Survival

Pink Phoenix

THE GIFT OF LIFE

Danny’s Wish

Baby Sister Miracle

Shafeeq’s Gift

Divine Donation

DIVINE INTERVENTION I

Second Sight

Baby Hope

Thanksgiving Angel

911 Angel

Fate Fights Fire

Family Restaurant

LOVE FINDS A WAY

The Rosenblatt Love Story

Kidney in Common

Love at First Sight

Rescue Romance

Affair of the Heart

Heaven Sent

OVERCOMING THE ODDS

Sarah’s Story

Football Coach

Daughter Shot

Eye-Opening Sight

REMARKABLE RESCUES II

Mom’s Abduction

Captain to the Rescue

Bumper Ride Horror

COMPASSIONATE CREATURES

Patra’s Gift

Dog Rescues Cats

Elk Angels

Cat Finds Gas Leak

THE ULTIMATE GIFT

Adopted Kidney

Lucky Layover

The Nicholas Effect

DIVINE INTERVENTION II

Medical School Windfall

Message from Ted

The Other Boy

St. Theresa’s Twins

SECOND-CHANCE FAMILY

Mother and Child Reunion

Older Brother

Lost and Found Hope

Wrong-Number Miracle

About the Author

About the Publisher

In 1998, when I was asked to host a new show on PAX TV entitled It’s a Miracle , I said to myself, “Great idea, but will anyone really care about all of this ‘good news’?”

Five years and hundreds of stories later, I have my answer; people LOVE good news, and yes, they DO care.

And I care. Every week I have gotten pleasure and spiritual sustenance from bringing these wonderful true stories to the television audience. I am very happy now to bring them to you in book form, and I hope they will touch you as much as they’ve touched me. I’m more convinced than ever of the abiding relevance and impact of narratives that reaffirm the essential worth and dignity of people – stories that tell about the mysterious but undeniable power of our spiritual lives. Whether these stories are about healings, separated and reunited loved ones, miraculous escapes from harm’s way, or simply about people reaching out and changing each other’s lives for the better, they all have the end result of affirming our shared humanity, and they all give us hope.

The world is, as they say, forever changing and forever the same. In the wake of September 11, 2001, life feels different. There is fear and anxiety, grief and anger. An imagined innocence has been lost; an imagined security has been shattered. But, in important ways, things remain the same. In the midst of disaster, people depended on and came through for each other in the enduring need for community. We are still looking for happiness and love, inner fulfillment and fellowship, as well as security and success. We still need each other, still reach out to each other, and the stories in this collection are evidence of that. One person helps another. A dream comes true. A second chance is given. The impossible comes to pass. So, no matter how dark the view may be from where we stand, we might try to remember that a miracle is always happening somewhere, and that – just as in these beautiful stories – something wonderful is always possible, for us and the people we love.

Enjoy!

– RICHARD THOMAS

The Great Depression hit Otto Sloan’s family, like so many others, hard. When his parents separated, Otto was sent to live with grandparents in Colorado. But soon, economic hardships once again forced Otto to move.

“Back when I was, oh, ten or eleven years old, my grandparents sent me to live with and work for Mrs. Rowan and her husband. So I went there to help and worked there with them. And I did that for some time,” recalls Otto.

It was while living there that he met Betty Jean Hodge, the daughter of a neighboring farmer.

“My earliest recollection,” says Betty Jean, “was when I’d get on the school bus, and he’d be on the bus, already there. And then he would look up at me, with a kind of smile in his eyes.”

“She was a very pretty girl, I thought,” says Otto. “And I wanted to speak to her then. But I didn’t. I was very bashful, you might say. I never would look at her direct, into her face or anything like that. I always cast my eyes down. I still do that to this day.”

As the years passed, Otto’s and Betty’s paths continued to cross.

“There were occasions when Otto would come down with the horse and he would round up the cattle,” says Betty Jean, “and I would always beg him to let me ride the horse.”

Otto wasn’t sure about that, however. “I said, ‘No, the horse is a one-man horse,’” recalls Otto. “I said, ‘It’d be better if you didn’t.’”

But Betty Jean persevered. “I had asked him and pleaded with him so much that Dad finally said, ‘Otto, you might as well let her on it, because she won’t give up until you do.’”

“So he was hoisting me up on the horse,” says Betty Jean. “And he wasn’t sure just how to go about doing that, because he was afraid he might touch me in an immodest place on my body. He was very careful of that,” she remembers, laughing. “He wanted to be precise in getting me on the horse.”

“So I finally ended up making a stirrup out of my hands, and had her put her foot in it,” says Otto. “I raised her up that way—and the horse just flew, it seemed to me, full blast for home.

“I hollered at her, ‘Drop the reins, drop the reins!’ She wouldn’t drop the reins,” Otto says, laughing. “If she would’ve dropped them, the horse would’ve stopped.”

The horse finally came to a stop at the end of the field.

“And I looked up at Betty, and you could see that there was fright in her eyes,” recalls Otto.