For all intents and purposes she was just an average, middle-aged woman.
She was on the bus, coming home from the city, when she first heard the voices. They were right there in her head. A woman’s voice, soft and speaking slowly, but only just audible. The first time she heard it the voice was saying something about volunteer work and how it was good for the community. She had done some volunteering once, but not for a long time. She wondered if she was being told something; being guided in some way. Yes, that could be it, a guiding voice. She knew that other people, women mainly, had talked about their guardian angels. She had never taken much notice of this… until now.
The voices seemed to continually fade in and out. Sometimes she could hear a lot of the words and other times just odd words or phrases. This was perplexing because she had never suffered from poor hearing. At home, in the quiet of her front room, it was easier to hear them. She heard very little for a couple of evenings, then late one afternoon a male voice came across a lot stronger. Again, a pleasant well-spoken man, talking about the loss of lives and the need for the government to sit down for talks. She heard several complete sentences before it faded out.
It was clear she was being given some sort of advice, whether it was from an angel or some other kind of spiritual being, she didn’t know. Whatever was going on, she decided to keep it to herself. Apart from any embarrassment that could result if this was shared with others, she felt that these messages were for her alone. It was her secret. For the best part of a year she would sit quietly knitting, listening as best she could to her voices. It was at this point that her life took a turn, for medical reasons.
Her teeth had given her problems for years. She thought this would be fixed finally when she had her upper teeth removed and a bridge fitted. However, she had been feeling pain there and it had been getting gradually worse for some time. Reluctantly, she had her local dentist examine her. Unhappily, she had developed a bad case of Gingivitis in her upper gums and needed to return to the medical centre in the city for further surgery. The outcome of this being the removal of her bridge and a course of treatment for her gums. It was recommended that instead of a bridge, an upper dental plate be fitted in order that any further treatment could be carried out more easily. Naturally, she was disappointed, but even more so when she came to realise that her voices had stopped.
She was destined never to know that her metal bridgework had been picking up a radio news channel!
