It was my senior year of high school when I saw people in the trees outside my house, an event I’ve never talked about since.
“I see people standing in the trees.” I told my boyfriend, burying my face in his shoulder.
“What are you talking about?” He asked.
People, too numerous to differentiate, stood at the level of the tall cottonwoods that lined the ditch and no matter how often I averted my eyes, when I looked up they were still there.
I’ve never spoken of this event because at the time I felt certain I was crazy.
Adding to this feeling of insanity was the fact that I felt a strong impression that Benjamin Franklin was among those in the trees. Benjamin Franklin? Why would he be there? Yet the name came so clearly to my mind that I couldn’t deny it.
It wasn’t until years, maybe decades later that it dawned on me. While it seemed quite unlikely that Benjamin Franklin the founding father was watching over me that night, finding a guardian angel in Benjamin Franklin Johnson my three times great grandfather made me feel that perhaps I wasn’t so crazy after all. Perhaps there really had been people standing in the trees.
“We have no idea what family really means.” My friend’s husband told her after his near death experience. “Family is everything.”
And I believe him.
So when I received a message from an old friend recently, telling me that his parents wanted to gift me with an original painting they had received from my father, I felt a thrill of excitement.
I want my dad’s energy–pieces of who he was–in my home. I want my kids to think of and know a little something about the grandpa they never met. I want them to feel the strength of family.
It’s for this reason that I–after all these years–decided to share the story of the people in the cottonwood trees.
I want my children to know that those same guardian angels that came forth at a very critical time in my youth are watching over them now. I want them to know that among those guardian angels are their grandpas, cheering from the front row. And I want to ask them, should they ever see people in the trees, to keep their eyes wide open and to wave hello for me.
Because they’ll be seeing their family.
And family is everything.
