Angels are for real.

There was this one time I fell off a mountain.

Oops, there were two times I fell off- mountain-s? Plural? Let me explain….

August 1999. When I was 9 years old we took a vacation to Salmon Idaho to my grandparent’s new cabin. Obviously, if the cabin wasn’t fun enough, they bought two new four-wheelers. In the rush to get to use them, my grandpa went to buy some helmets, but they only had smaller sizes- which later came to be a major problem.

After anxiously waiting all time for my turn with Grandpa, I finnnally got on and he let me drive will his assistance. We wound ‘round and ‘round going up the mountain on a dirt trail. “Gosh, this is fun!” Next thing I knew, we were drifting across the dirt straight towards the edge.

For there I felt like time stopped. I remember jumping off mid-flight and landing in some rocks, but that’s about all. Why did we drift like fast and furious, I will never know. It haunts me to this day. I woke up some time after and looked around trying to figure out where I was and what happened. I looked down the ravine a little farther to find my grandpa with his head (no helmet) split open on a rock, unconscious, and the four wheeler wrapped around a tree. I was 9 years old, what to do? I suddenly felt that I was in some sort of survival movie. I was miles from the cabin, in the pit of a ravine. What did I do? Run for help…

So I ran. I climbed out of the canyon and followed that dirt road for what seemed to be forever til I found a cabin. I didn't care that it looked creepy, I frantically knocked on the front door and begged for help. Fortunately an ax murderer didn't come out, but a precious elderly couple who looked anxious to help. Angels. I explained that I was in an accident with my grandpa and I wasn't sure if he was still alive but was bleeding a lot. And I was fine. Wait, I flew down a 20-foot ravine and was fine? Did I take a second to realize that? They stood amazed and called the police.

Long story short, it took a few hours for the life flight and rescuers to come all the way up the mountain, get my grandpa out, and get him in the ambulance. Although I swore I was ok, they didn’t believe it, so I was put in a neck brace and a stretcher and drove in the ambulance to the nearest big hospital. My grandpa cracked his skull and had a major brain injury, but later after many months of recuperation recovered fully and returned to practicing law.

My mother's scrapbook page of the event in her words... (She is also an angel for as much as she has to worry about me)

9-year-old Emily, days after the accident

16 years later….

August 2014. I worked a few days a week in Park City and brought my bike knowing we had a break in the day for meetings I did not need to attend. And so I finished up with patients and got dressed and took off to do one of my favorite summer activities during lunch break- mountain biking. I took a trail I hadn’t been on before at Park City Mountain Resort. The trail was pretty wet, but I felt like any other day, just a bit rainy. I rounded a corner and ran into a technical part, so I slowed down and slowly went over the rocks. Suddenly I felt that my back tire wasn’t under me and it had started slipping down with a chunk of the trail. I tried to get out of my clip-in pedals, but the slipping momentum took my bike….straight over the ravine. I did about 5 somersaults, hit my head and chin, bike flew off, and stopped at a tree about 15 feet down. I looked around and assessed the damage, trying to figure out how I even got there cause it happened so quickly. I’ve biked a hundred times before and no injuries. Didn’t look like I had any broke bones or didn’t hurt anything but my bloody chin? Seriously, am I that lucky? Again? Wait, I had done this before. Nostalgia and deja-vu seemed to hit me like a punch in the gut. 16 years ago couldn’t have seemed more like yesterday. I had been saved again.

Next thing I hear is a lady calling down to me. (Angel).

 “Helllooooo, are you ok?!”

“Umm yes?”

“Do you know where you are and what date it is?” (Her thinking surely with how far I fell I shouldn't be alive or conscious)

“August 14^th, Park City Mountain Resort.”

“Wow, ok I will go get some help.”

Then she found her friends, and they scooped me out of the ravine (more angels). I stuffed my gaping chin with some leaves and a bandana to stop the bleeding, and carefully rode to the next chairlift down. I rode back to the office a bloody and muddy mess.  My faithful doctor, PA and x-ray tech got the gravel out of my legs and chin and left with only 13 stitches and a headache. I retired my cracked helmet and called a friend (another angel) for help. Then over the course of the next week, I had multiple angels watch over and care for me in the recovery process of my second concussion in 6 months (car accident in February). Although I was initially fine, a few days later I hit a period of mental confusion, anxiety, memory loss, and weakness. I have been recovering on “medical bed rest” the past week for recurrent concussion symptoms. Angels have continued to stop by and help me throughout this difficult process. Priesthood blessings, loyal friends, and parents, loved ward members. I had many angels working overtime.

Freak trail slide where I got caught

Climbing back out of the drop off with help

Assessing the damage

Could have been worse but I looked pretty beat up.

"Hey doc, does this need stitches?" as I ride down the chairlift

Good old Doc/Boss numbing me up

Now I'm feeling it

I sit and think about this and get emotional. So weirdly similar. Both happened in the blink of an eye. Both I was magically “cushioned” all the way down the mountain. Both times I left seemingly unharmed. Both times I was wearing and eventually saved by my helmet.

Saul put a helmet on David. Uzziah prepared his armies with helmets in the Old Testament. Ephesians and Thessalonians tells us to take up the helmet of salvation.

One of salvation’s definitions states “preservation or deliverance from harm, ruin, or loss”. I was saved. But my life has also been saved my seen and unseen angels in these two parallel instances. I will never understand why things like this happen, I will just pray and try to realize and continually remember how sacred life is and to value every moment. Not sure what lesson I am to learn from this, but I have no doubt that I am alive today because of certain angels in my life. I encourage you, if you ever have wondered if there are angels in this life- to read or listen to this talk "Ministry of Angels" by Jeffrey R Holland. It was already one of my favorites, but now it just means so much more to me. He states:

"My beloved brothers and sisters, I testify of angels, both the heavenly and the mortal kind. In doing so I am testifying that God never leaves us alone, never leaves us unaided in the challenges that we face.... Often enough that distress can be of our own making, but even then the Father of us all is watching and assisting. And always there are those angels who come and go all around us, seen and unseen, known and unknown, mortal and immortal."  



So whenever you feel alone, scared, in danger- look for His angels. Seen or unseen. Heavenly or earthy. They will come now or they might take some time, but they will come. I know I have seen them 'round about me, and if I have learned anything from this experience is that they are real and we are never, ever, alone. Hopefully one day I will meet my angels and thank them for working overtime in the mountains for me......... :) 












PS I wrote this blog in my very minimal allotted computer time with the appropriate head gear (just if you are wondering if I am breaking my bed rest no computer, tv, reading rules)