team of angels, Patricia Gallagher, inspirational story, Christian speaker, motivational speaker

Patricia Gallagher, 215-272-1933, www.teamofangels.com, yngpsparro@aol.com
(this was written when I almost gave up doing the team of angels, I was so down and discouraged, look who picked up my spirits!)


Larry, Norman and Harriet: My Personal Team of Angels

I looked down at the lime green pants suit I was wearing with the matching shoes. I bought last year for $9.99 at Ross. I was on my way to speak to a group of college students. I doubted that the outfit was presentable.
My attention was drawn outward as somebody was telling me I had a nearly flat tire. Great, more money! I thought.
I was so broke I was now relying on credit cards. It really seemed like a lot of the situations were beyond my control, such as medical expenses not covered, but this one was my fault. I decided to follow a dream – not impulsively but after a lot of praying for wisdom. Last year, I took the $30,000 in proceeds from the sale of my house, sold my van, and moved into a rental property so I could use the money to make 50,000 Angel Pins to give away.
I have heard family members say “How is she ever going to get rid of them?” The undercurrent was that I had wasted the family funds with my Angel Pin project. But to me they are a meaningful token of support. I ask people to pass the pin and poem along when they find someone who needs it more than they do. I have thousands of pins, boxes of letters from grateful recipients and lots of promises of prayers from strangers worldwide.
I began writing poems as a release and put them on pins featuring three gold colored Angels. I soon came to believe that there were many people with problems who could perhaps find my pins inspirational. The poem “For the Overwhelmed” began:

A TEAM OF ANGELS FOR THE OVERWHELMED
I need a Team of Angels, Lord
I don’t think one will do
Please send me all the help from high
For what I’m going through

Guardians to watch over me
And help my soul to cope
I’ll do the best I can to pray
And cherish gifts of faith and hope

Because I was following my heart, not my pocketbook, I took to the road this summer, my rented van cluttered with the new batch of 50,000 pins for hurricane and coal mine victims and others in hospitals, addiction centers, chapels and military installations as I drove up and down the East Coast and out to Ohio.
After my talk that afternoon, I went in to a coffee shop in Haverford. I sat on a comfortable chair and closed my eyes. It overlooked a parking lot filled with luxurious cars, beautiful women in expensive outfits, women with artfully applied makeup, designer sunglasses, professionally coiffed and looking so financially secure. They would never shop at Ross and certainly never be out of season with a lime green suit with a wrinkled satin bow. They probably didn’t have a care in the world.
A man came over and sat across from me, in a large orange chair. He had a gaily-colored cane, with a pattern like a rattlesnake, leaning against his leg. He had red clogs on his feet, a fishing hat, sunglasses, and a nice smile. He said, “I don’t want to interrupt your thoughts.”
And so I ignored him, closed my eyes again, clutched my hands together, listened to the music, and lost myself in self-pity.
I was conscious of my rudeness. It seemed like a long time when I finally asked What gets you through tough times? Not exactly a surface conversation starter with a stranger.
Friends, family, loved ones. When you are going through something, you need people to stay with you and offer encouragement. Some people think it is the big things that matter, but it is really the little things that mean the most. Like in this expensive zip code area especially, many people think it is the cars, fancy houses, prestige, jobs, saving accounts, investments… but material things don’t matter when you have had a brain tumor. I wear the sunglasses because the glare of the sun hurts my eyes, and the walking stick is for balance. I came over to you because that green suit fits with that chair so nicely and you radiate something.
I can’t believe what you are saying because I am sitting here thinking about a project that I am doing. In a minute, I gave him the short version of my current life.
He smiled. You are doing good for humanity. You are helping others. It doesn’t have to make sense when you follow your heart People here in Haverford, have the same problems as everybody else – heavy with cares, illness, bills, life problems. Don’t give up on this. Your pins are renewing people who feel defeated.
His friend Norman joined us; then his mother, Harriet. She said, “Your green suit is lovely.”
Harriet, Norman and Larry were the Team of Angels I needed to meet yesterday.