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 My grandma told me about angels. She said they come knocking
at the door of our hearts, trying to deliver a message to us. I saw
them in my mind's eye with a big mail sack slung between their wings and
a post office cap set jauntily on their head. I wondered if the stamps
on their letters said "Heaven Express." "No use waiting for the angel to
open your door," Grandma explained. "You see, there is only one door
handle on the door of your heart. Only one bolt. They are on
the inside. Your side. You must listen for the angel, throw
open the lock and open up that door!"
I loved the story and asked her again and again to tell me, "What
does the angel do then?" "The angel never says 'hello.' You reach out and
take the message, and the angel gives you your instructions: 'Arise and
go forth!' then the angel flies away.
It is your responsibility to take action."
However, there was one time when the knocking stopped. It happened
when my daughter, Lilly, was badly hurt in an accident. She was riding
on the back of a forklift her father rented to move some hay for our horses.
Lilly and two of the neighbor children begged him to let them ride on the
forklift when he took it back to the rental place. Going down a little
hill, the steering gear broke. Her father almost pulled his arms
out of their sockets trying to hold the big rig on the road before it turned
over. The little neighbor girl broke her arm. Lilly's father
was knocked unconscious. Lilly was pinned underneath, with the huge
weight of the rig on her left hand. Gasoline spilled out, burning her legs
and hip.
The neighbor boy was unhurt and kept his wits. He ran out and
stopped traffic. We rushed Lilly to Orthopedic Hospital in Los Angles where
they began a long series of operations, each time amputating more of her
hand as gangrene ate more away. Lilly had just started piano lessons.
Because I am a writer, I had looked forward with great anticipation
to her taking typing lessons the next year. During this time I often drove
off by myself to cry, not wanting others to see me. I couldn't stop.
I found I did not have the concentration to read anything. No angels
knocked. There was a heavy silence in my heart. I kept thinking
of all the things Lilly would never do because of this terrible accident.
When we took her back to the hospital for the sixth operation, my
spirit was very low. I kept thinking over and over, "She will never
type! Never type. Never type." We set her bag down in the hospital
room and suddenly turned around because a young teenage girl in the next
bed said to us in a commanding voice: "I've been waiting for you! You go
down the hall right now, third room on the left! There is a boy there who
was hurt in a motorcycle accident. You go down there and lift up
his spirit, right now!" She had the voice of a field marshal. We
immediately obeyed her. We talked to the boy and encouraged him,
and then came back to Lilly's hospital room.
For the first time I noticed that this unusual girl was bent way
over. "Who are you?" I asked. "My name is Tony Daniels," she grinned.
"I go to the handicapped high school. This time the doctors are going
to make me a whole inch taller!
You see, I had polio. I have had many operations."
She had the charisma and strength of a General Schwartzkopf.
I couldn't help the words that came flying out of my mouth. I gasped,
"But you aren't handicapped!"
"Oh, yes, you are right," she replied, looking sideways at me.
"They teach us down at our school that we are never handicapped as long
as we can help someone else. Now, if you met my schoolmate who teaches
the typing class, you might think she is handicapped because she was born
with no arms and no legs. But she helps all of us by teaching us
typing, with a wand between her teeth."
Ka bang! Suddenly I heard it-the clanging noise of pounding and kicking
and yelling at the door of my heart! I ran out of the room
and down the corridor to find a pay phone. I asked the operator for
the giant of the 1960's typing world - IBM! In my haste I didn't
stop to consider I was just getting the number for some small a local sales
office. I was arising, and going through that opening door!
I asked for the Manager, I wanted to go straight to the top!
I told him my little girl had lost nearly all of her left hand, and if
they had one-hand touch-typing charts. He paused a long moment, "Well now,
this is very odd. I'd never heard of such a thing until a few days ago.
Someone sent me a one-handed typing manual, it's right here on my desk.
Let's see, it has charts for the right hand, or the left hand. Let me send
it to you as my gift.
It wasn't until very recently we realized how rare these one hand
typing manuals are, and what a miracle it was for him to have it on his
desk the day I called.
When we were finally able to take Lilly back to school, I took the
one-hand typing charts with me. I asked the school principal if Lilly could
take typing, even though she was too young. He told me I could ask
the typing teacher if I wanted to, perhaps the teacher would volunteer
his time at lunch, "After all, she certainly can't be allowed to slow down
the entire class - and we certainly can't pay him for his time." My heart
sank.
But the typing teacher, Mr. Fredrigill, was wonderful. He just smiled
at us and said, "We will find a way. We'll just learn one hand touch typing
together." I have since heard of so many unwilling to take on a child with
a challenge. On the first day of class, he sat down with Lilly 30 minutes
before the others came in. That was all it took, she continued on with
the class.
Soon she was touch-typing all of her homework. Her English
teacher scolded her; "Your mother is typing your homework. Don't let her
baby you, Lilly. You have a good right hand. You can write
out your own homework."
"Oh, no sir." She smiled at him I'm up to 30 words a minute
with my touch-typing."
The teacher sat down suddenly. Then he said slowly, "Being
able to type has always been my dream." He was a polio victim. His
right arm hung helplessly by his side.
"Come to the typing room, during lunch time. I'll teach you!" It
was after the first lunchtime lesson that she came home and said, "Mama,
Tony Daniels was right. I'm not handicapped anymore - I am helping
someone else."
Today, Lilly is the author of six internationally acclaimed books,
helping a great many people. She has taught all of our office staff
to use our Apple computers with our mouse pad on the left side, because
that is where she makes hers fly around with what remains of her hand.
We are all handicapped in comparison to her computer and typing skills!
She has now created her own "One Hand Typing and Keyboarding Manual:
With Personal Motivational Messages From Others Who Have Overcome!" because
she still will tell you, that you are not handicapped, when you can help
someone else. (http://www.aboutonehandtyping.com)
Shush. Listen! Do you hear the knocking? Throw the bolt! Open
the door! Angels never say "hello." Their greeting is always "Arise and
go forth!"
by Dottie Walters, (c) 2000,
from Lilly Walters' One Hand Typing and Keyboarding
Manual: With Personal Motivational Messages From Others Who Have Overcome!
****** No portion of this publication may be reproduced in
any manner whatsoever without prior written consent from Lilly Walters
******* For information on use of this story,
Phone 626-335-8069, Fax 626-335-6127, E-mail Lilly@aboutonehandtyping.com
--Used by The Classroom with her permission
- Lilly Walters,
One-hand typist and author of:
* One Hand Typing and Keyboarding Manual: With Personal Motivational
Messages From Others Who Have Overcome! (in two formats)
1) E-book PDF file, 66 pages, $13.95 US, (no shipping);
ISBN 9-934344-54-X,
Royal CBS Publishing,
2) Comb-back manual, 66 pages, $14.95, $5 S/H
ISBN 0-934344-54-X, Royal
CBS Publishing,
for more resources for one hand typists ...
http://www.aboutonehandtyping.com
ALSO WRITTEN BY LILLY WALTERS, http://www.walters-intl.com
"Secrets of Superstar Speakers: Inside the Soul Of Inspiration"
(McGraw-Hill,
Jan. 2000!)
"Speak and Grow Rich" (Prentice-Hall, 1998 and 1988)
"What to Say When You're Dying On the Platform!" (McGraw Hill)
"Secrets of Successful Speakers" (McGraw Hill).
"Chicken Soup for the Soul®" series featured author.
"Chicken Soup for the Celtic Soul®" co-author.
"You Can Make Money From Your Hobby:
Building
A Business Doing What You Love"
with Martha
Campbell Pullen, (Broadman & Holman Publishers, 1999)
"The Speaking Industry Reports!"
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