DO YOU BELIEVE IN GUARDIAN ANGELS ?

In a previous article that I wrote I explained about my story of how a change of career went pear shaped. It had been the kind of career move that should have made me more secure, after all this was a job working for the state and all the benefits that went along with such a job.
Fire fighters were and still are very highly thought of regarding courage and bravery and to think that I was to become a part of this, brought a lump to my throat and a sense of pride.
To think that I would be a part of all this really excited me and was part of the reason that I gave up a job that I loved, selling tyres and batteries for a company in Leeds, West Yorkshire.
The events that followed my joining the fire service were to become a disaster and the memory will be with me for every day of my life.
I had always been an honest person, in my teens and my twenties I had lots of good friends, we were growing up in swinging sixties, all the good things that were happening, the music, the sport, Britain was a great place to live.
Unemployment was unheard of, all my friends had jobs and people could move around from job to job for whatever reason, usually it would be for more money but the feeling was good and we all experienced a care free life and a I was part of that scene, the times were good.
Another thing that emerged was the advent of the motor car. We all seemed to be able to afford them, although some of the cars were in pretty bad condition- teenagers bought old banger cars and repaired them at home, just to keep them on the road, good days indeed.
The new car craze had got me interested in the repair side of things and my second job was an apprentice mechanic, in a small town garage in a town called Batley.
My problem though was that I was a bit mouthy although this became an asset when I started my own business later in life. It wasn’t long before my employment was terminated, my boss and I were always arguing about nothing and before too long my life at the garage had ended.
But as I said earlier you could move from one job to another in those days and sure enough, just two week later I had found another job. My new adventure was at a tyre dealer in my local town of Dewsbury. This was a great job, I loved every minute of it, I had found my forte.
This is where I met my long term friend and future business partner Peter. Peter and I worked together for four or five years before I moved on to the next job for financial reasons, in other words more money.
This was more difficult job because the tyres that I were fitting were the giant tyres that you see on the massive dumper trucks that you see on new motorway sites or open cast mining coal sites. However I very soon got the hang of things and very soon was told by my boss that I should take my heavy goods driving test.
An heavy goods driving licence was important because the tyres were so big that they could only be transported by trucks. My driving lessons and driving test were all carried out in a single week and I duly passed.
Once again I loved my job, it was an outdoor job and involved travelling all across the country. Summer was best, I became as brown as a berry as we say in England. Time went by and the World drifted into a recession.
The coal industry was in turmoil because of strikes and we were not aloud onto the pit sites to change the tyres. Work on new motorways became more patchy due to government cut backs, things were becoming a mess and I was fearful for the future.
An old friend that I had met by chance told me that the fire service were looking for new recruits, due to a new change in shift patterns, they were adding a new shift to reduce the working hours of the fire fighters. I applied to the fire service and to my surprise I passed my exams, passed my course and ended up at Huddersfield fire station as rooky fireman Roberts.
The next thing I knew I was blown up in a house fire due to a flash over and ended up badly burned and injured, and two years later was back working in my old industry in the tyre trade
This is were things started to happen, it was very strange. Things started to go really well for me, I did not realise it at the time but everything I did went right for me.
My experiences are too many to write about but I will tell a couple of the strange things, indeed my next job came to me on a plate. My old friend Peter had left his old job working with me, and had become self employed delivering small items, for engineering companies in the oil business.
Pete asked me if I wanted to travel with him to Nottingham, as at the time I had not found a job, probably because I had not looked as I was still attending physiotherapy after my accident at Wakefield hospital. However I accepted Peters offer and off we went to Nottingham.
On our return we decided to call and see an old workmate at his tyre depot in a town called Pontefract. This was another Peter who was manager of the local branch of a national tyre company.
Pete as I will call him was very pleased to see his old friends and proceeded to make us a coffee, the coffee turned into an old friends conversation about the old days although we were only in our late twenties at this time.
Then a strange thing happened, I had noticed guys dressed up in there best suits going in and out of a small back office and asked Pete what was going on, Pete told me that the area manager, a guy called Bernie, was interviewing applicants for a vacancy that was open as branch manager of there depot in Huddersfield.
He then looked at me and suggested that I might apply for the job. My jaw dropped with amazement, I could not believe my luck and to cut a long story short, I applied went in for an interview and got the job. All this started as a day out because I had nothing to do.
After this every thing I did would go right for me.
My depot at Huddersfield became very successful and before long I was winning inter depot sales target competitions and was jetting off on Caribbean cruises and other exotic trips. Life was good and it was while I was working for the tyre company that I met my wife to be Michelle.
We were soon married and very quickly started a family. Our first child was born a girl we named Claire. She was to become the first child of eight wonderful children.
A few years went by and I started to realise that I once again loved my job as manager, but I could do the job working for myself and indeed I was to become my own boss and start my first business. Peter and I had always kept in touch we were good friends and trusted each other. He had by this time branched out from local deliveries to buying and selling truck tyres, he would buy old used tyres and have them made into remoulds.
Peter was quit successful at this and offered to go into partnership with me supplying the capital we needed for starting up our new venture. This I agreed to and the rest is history. Everything I did seemed to turn to gold , we bought a villa in Spain and things were great.
I could help thinking of what was happening to me, we had small problems everybody does but when we came to a crossroads and had to make the correct decision there always seemed to be some kind of thing or spirit helping me, sort of like a guardian angel.
I began to wonder about the terrible accident that I had been involved in, could it be something to do with that. The explosion and fire had changed my life, but I began to believe that my escape was planned for me and I certainly had no intentions of dyeing on that horrible day.
All my life after that day seemed to go right, there are millions of small and large things that happened that went the right way, I was now starting to believe that I was getting some sort of divine help, perhaps I really had a guardian angel, As I mentioned before I have always been a good, honest person and have never harmed anybody in my life, but I was not religious, I sort of believe in God but I am not sure of what it is.
My wife and I have recently visited the Holy land so we must have some sort of religious beliefs, but I felt something powerful was helping me out in life, I wonder if there is anyone reading this article who has experienced the same kind of thing, it has taken me a long time to get to this part , but I felt it important to fill in some of the background before I got to the important bits. After a few years say nine or ten I began to work out in my own head how I could decipher the message I was given and take the advice.
all sorts of things can happen, they could be small things , I would say that I had not seen such a person for ages and they would come to my business or phone up . This kind of thing happens all the time. I also get guidance on large decisions, or things will happen a couple of days before that I can relate to, sometimes it comes in disguised ways I can get little signs that I can relate to and react to.
This sort of thing must happen to many people and it would of interest to hear from them, my experiences and things that have happened are too numerous to mention and indeed are continuing to happen, but if they exist I am convinced that I have got a guardian angel.
Thirty odd years later we are still doing well all the kids are grown up, we now own a thriving garage business in Halifax West Yorkshire called Pellonautocentre and I have an internet business at www.pellonautocentre.com and i am still guided by my mysterious friend .