Triumphant!

**Found this story I penned for a writing contest and wanted to share.**

The time was the 1940s in America.  War!  Gradually the grip of the Great Depression loosened as the nightmare that held this country in such terror and horror diminished into a fleeting nightmare as the economy began to hit on all four cylinders.  The New Deal!  The American Dream a reality once more!  As a young couple in love, the thought of hope and a future life together seemed easily within reach.  Closing on our new home in Austin gave us the confidence and security in the fact that very dream can be had upon the strength of a good work ethic.  For isn’t this what America was built on?  Wasn’t it by our resolve and determination, the sweat of our brow, so we were told and had lived out for us that gave the sense that the world could be ours if we simply went after it?  For this is what made us the Greatest Generation.  Soon the reminder came that dreams come at a price as financial, as well as other, struggles beset us.  Still we persevered and sacrificed for what we had.  Lying in bed one evening, drifting in and out of consciousness to frolic in the stardust filled regions of slumber, I felt a presence…someone sitting down on the bed next to me.  So real!  What?  An indentation on my mattress next to me?  What sort of ghoulish phenomenon is unfolding before me?  As my mind processed the shock as answers came slowly, I saw a man of striking appearance.  In a flowing white robe, contrasted only by his coal black eyes and dark wavy hair, he gave the impression that he had been here this whole time waiting for me to acknowledge him.  I was completely at his mercy, barely comprehending or grasping his presence or what was occurring.  He was staring intently into the windows of my soul, peering deeply in my inner-most being.  I was extremely uncomfortable by the actions of the unknown man feeling as if my vulnerable soul lay bare before him for scrutiny, made subject to his intense and searching gaze.  I woke with a start as I was still reeling from the visit with the apparition.  Was this friend or foe?  Over the course of the next few days I spoke of the ordeal with my closest friend Dorothy.  Wow!  You were blessed by the Almighty!  She knew without reservation or hesitation that the visit was from God Himself, and that I was allowed to live to tell about it.  As my mind continued to sort through what had happened, I now believe this was an angel sent to comfort me from the Sovereign Creator of the Universe.  Not even a sparrow can fall to the ground without his knowledge or concern, and that our struggles were noticed and provided for before a petition could be uttered.  Eerily I took this to heart and will never question the supernatural which are normal happenings in the spiritual plane.

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