Angel on Board Tells of Valentines from Beyond

Angel On Board is a fictionalized version of events in its author's life. "Most of the 'human' events happened," EJ explains to her readers when she tells the story behind the story of the writing of the book, "but not necessarily in the order that they appear in the book."

Some of the real events are the deaths and births depicted in the book correspond to characters in EJ's family and some of the astounding coincidences such as the slot machine wins, the accidental way she found out she was pregnant, the father's alcoholism and infidelity, and the way the child was named were all taken from the real-life story that inspired the novel.

Twice this past February, however, two different readers wrote to tell her that the 'Valentine Story' had come true for them. Taken from the book, the angel Martin, who was the husband of Glory, on the day of his funeral 'placed' the last Valentine's Day card he gave his wife where she would find it, to remind her of his love for her during a time in her life when she needed assurance that his love still existed and hadn't died with him. Martin 'found' it in a stack of special letters and papers and pulled it to place it where it would appear that it had just 'fallen' off the desk. Then he made sure that she found it just when she needed to find it. EJ's readers had even more astounding stories about their Valentine's from Heaven.

The first was a recent widower who faced his first Valentine's Day without his wife of 34 years. She died of a brain aneurysm the August before. Five days after Valentine's day this year, he made one of his daily trips down to his basement workspace and received a surprise. There, on one corner of his desk, was an envelope addressed to "My Love." It was two Valentine's cards, one taped inside another. The first was dated 2/19/2001 - and even sent an apology for the card 'being late' but sent all her love.

He remembered receiving this card and as Glory did in the novel, clutched it to his chest, cried and could remember the moment and feel the love when he first received the card. But even more puzzling was the second card inside the first. It wasn't something he ever remembered receiving before. It was an insert card that said, "I miss you." He had been down to his basement office almost every day since his wife passed away and had never noticed the card before. There was no way it had been sitting on the corner of his desk for five years, or even five months or even five days. How it got there on that day (exactly 5 years later), he claims is a miracle and a message from beyond.

The second, a father who lost a young daughter in October, was handed the book Angel On Board just before a long flight. He started to read the book and like most of its readers, cried through the first few pages. But he gasped when he read the Valentine's story and had to put the book down because of his experience just a couple of week's before. It was February 13th and he was tired of hurting, tired of crying, tired of aching for his lost daughter. He just wanted to know that she was safe and happy where she was - on the other side. He decided to take his mind off his troubles and do some long, overdue cleaning. He started with a stack of magazines in the middle of the coffee table that had been building there for quite some time. When he got to the bottom of the stack, he found his present.

There was the only hand-made Valentine his young daughter had ever made just waiting for him to receive it again - exactly one year to the day of the first time he was given it. He knew the stack of magazines had been building for some time, but he couldn't imagine it had begun almost a year before, but that would be the only reasonable explanation for the card being there. But why did he suddenly get the urge to clean after all that time, and on that day? He's still not sure. Whether it was divine intervention, his daughter being able to shine her 'angel light' on it or just an incredibly special coincidence, he doesn't know or care. He just knows he will treasure that special piece of paper for as long as he lives.

EJ was stunned to read these letters, because the concept of the deceased giving gifts came from her real life experiences, but the gift stories in Angel On Board were quite made up. Clothes have fallen off of hangars, music has been mixed up, flowers have bloomed out of season, but the Valentine's card story was just a plot device designed to evoke a specific response from the reader. She didn't know she was predicting the future. Fiction became fact some eight years after the words were originally typed into her computer. EJ summarizes it this way, "When you try to explain these coincidences in human terms, the odds are just too staggering to comprehend and it always leaves you with a sense of a missing piece of the puzzle. So, just believe that you've got angels on board and everything falls perfectly right into place."