When her 14 year old niece was diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, respected journalist, radio producer and TV researcher, Janise Beaumont (pictured), set off in search of a miracle. What she found will warm your heart and perhaps, restore your faith in humanity.
Eight years ago life hurt like crazy. Janise Beaumont felt she had failed in every area of her life and no matter what she did, or how hard she tried, happiness always seemed to elude her. Then a woman she barely knew gave her a little picture book about angels which she kept by her bed just to remind herself that ‘We are not alone whatever the circumstances.’ When her niece Georgia, fell gravely ill Janise began collecting the stories of people who have encountered angels in their everyday lives, for her book In Search of Angels.
She searched the world for stories of people who have encountered angels in all their guises – from celestial beings with wings, to the earth angels who rescue us in our time of need. But it wasn’t until her own experience with a guardian angel, that the author became a true believer.
Speaking to Australian Women Online, Janise said, “I didn’t know what I would find when I went off in search of angels. I had never really thought about angels other than the Catholic imagery I’d grown up with. But there are a whole lot of people out there who believe in angels, or are themselves unsung earth angels. I found some really lovely people and it seems to me that people who believe in angels are likely to be incredibly sweet.”
“What I liked about so many of the stories is that it involved a leap of faith. There were and there always will be, unanswered questions about what happened, but they decided to believe anyway and I think that’s part of the whole angel caper. You’ve got a choice, but I can definitely see that people’s lives are enhanced when they do take that leap of faith.”
Her belief in the existence of angels began to take shape eight years earlier when Janise received the gift of a little picture book about angels. As she was later to write in her book: ‘Being reminded that WE ARE NOT ALONE WHATEVER THE CIRCUMSTANCES was more precious than rubies. Looking back, it may well have saved my life.’
“I have been very slow in coming to the fundamental truths and I think my main problem has been that I catastrophise. I have spent much of my life playing the ‘what if’ game. For example, if I applied for a job and I didn’t hear back, instead of being positive or applying for another job, I would sit there thinking if I don’t get this job I’ll probably starve to death. That sounds tragic and stupid but a lot of people catastrophise and I was the world champion,” said Janise.
“Then about eights years ago I started allowing the people I now think of as my earth angels, to help and I started trusting people with my worries. Whilst there is a ridiculous amount I don’t know about life, I do know that if a good person holds out a hand, take it.”
Janise also believes that angels are watching over young Georgia, who at the time of writing this was back in hospital.
“I have her permission to include her in the book and I’ve told her that I pray to her guardian angel and I pray to mine. I believe that angels interceding on her behalf have played some part in the fact that she’s still alive because there have been many times when things looked very grim indeed.”
Although she has never seen her guardian angel, the miracle of Georgia’s survival and the stories she has collected from men and women around the world, has made her a believer in the existence of angels.
I believe and Janise agrees, that when in search of earth angels, we needn’t look any further than our local hospital, a place where miracles can and do happen with some regularity.
“I think it can be very easy for any of us to go down a path where we believe that most people, or many people, are absolute creeps and are totally self-serving and we can lose sight of the fact that there are wonderful people out there who don’t put themselves first and yes, the medical profession come into that,” she said.
During her search Janise encountered many stories of angels appearing in the form of cats, dogs, horses and other animals. “I came to feel in regard to believing that pets have this other dimension to them, it can’t hurt. So having these beautiful thoughts about our pets, the very worst that can happen is that we’re wrong. The healing power of pets takes my breath away. When Georgie comes home she might be overdue to get a puppy.”