THE HOLISTIC LAWYER

We are each of us angels with only one wing, and we can only fly by embracing one another.

Luciano de Crescenzo

I met an angel today. She was someone who contacted me via the internet almost two years ago, when she wrote to me about a legal problem she was having with a lawyer in Michigan. She lived in California; her son was a U of M law student and she wrote to me because she’d seen our website and liked the name, LADY4JUSTICE.

Her only child was a promising, highly intelligent young man who hired a lawyer over some problems he was having. He died before the issues were resolved and Marguerite unsuccessfully tried to work with the lawyer to settle the matter on her son’s behalf. The lawyer was uncooperative, so after many failed efforts Marguerite pursued her concerns through the courts. Although we talked via email and I gave her some guidance, this woman single-handedly took on a fight against a lawyer in a state where she did not live. This is not an easy thing to do.

Her case dragged on for a year. When she won in the trial courts, the lawyer appealed it. Marguerite didn’t know the first thing about appeals, yet she persisted because she felt she had to, on behalf of her son. She even wrote her own appeal brief. The appeal took another year.

While the case was pending, Marguerite lost her husband to a tragic illness through which she had nursed him. This did not stop her, though, and she did not lose her spirit. Despite many blows that life handed her, she pressed on.

Today, her case was scheduled to be heard in the Michigan Court of Appeals and I went down there, simply as moral support for this lady who had become a friend. When I arrived, I received a warm reception from security and court personnel, although I had not been to that court for years. Why? Because this remarkable woman had already won their hearts in the short time she was here and she told them I would be coming to cheer her on.

You can probably imagine how stressful it would be to take all this on without a lawyer. Yet Marguerite refused to give up, even preparing her own argument to make to the court. Due to various mailing problems her written request to speak was denied as untimely. Yet on her day in court today, the panel made an exception and let her give her argument anyway. I sat in the audience and listened.

Marguerite was eloquent and impassioned. She didn’t pretend to have a grasp of statutes and case law and said she could cite only one law: Thou shalt not steal. I was moved to tears listening to her speak. I later learned that she had played a lawyer in an 80’s TV series called The Judge. This experience gave her presence.

Once the hearing was over, we went to lunch together in a lovely restaurant in the Fisher Building in Detroit. Marguerite had a gift for me; a beautiful necklace with a delicate heart made of tiny gold flowers and a thank you card. She said she had incorporated my suggestions into her oral argument and she thanked me for all I had done to support her. She hugged me as if I had done something wonderful.

At lunch, I learned that today was another auspicious day for her; her 26th wedding anniversary. It was so moving to listen to this amazing woman tell the story of a life that might have devastated another, yet she still found joy in her life. She had been a working member of the Screen Actors Guild for many years, leaving a successful career to care for her mother when she was diagnosed with Alzheimers. When God closes a door He opens a window and though her acting career ended she started her own travel agency, because it was a job she could operate from home.

She talked about strange circumstances surrounding her son’s death during a stop by Los Angeles police for a traffic violation and the little miracles she had experienced thereafter. The people who came to her aid unexpectedly to pray with her in the least likely places and facilitate needed action. The orchid from her son’s funeral that continued to bloom until his birthday the following year. Every step of her difficult way, angels guarded her path.

She shared some of her favorite Bible verses with me, like one from Joshua “I will never leave thee nor forsake thee” that inspired her to keep going when she felt like giving up. And all the while, she acted like I was the hero. I knew I was in the presence of greatness.

After an emotional luncheon, we parted ways. I will probably never see her again. Yet I couldn’t help feeling, as I drove away, that I’d been touched by an angel. An angel who personified courage and determination in the face of all obstacles. At the same time, she saw me as an angel who had come at just the right time to encourage her and guide her through a precarious journey. She told me, “I couldn’t have done this without you.” I felt humbled, for whatever small help I had given her paled in comparison with the shining example of courage she had given me.

The truth is we are all of us angels to someone. Unbeknownst to ourselves most of the time, we act to say or do just the right thing to help someone else along their way. And they do the same for us. To me, Marguerite was a shining angel of courage. To her, I was an angel of encouragement. Whose angel will you be today?

Friends are kisses blown to us by angels.

Author Unknown

© 2006 Mindy L. Hitchcock