Angels helped to save Reagan's life claim children

by SIMON FORSYTH

     WHEN FORMER US president Ronald Reagan faced life-threatening experiences he twice had encounters with angelic beings who comforted him and helped pull him through his medical crises, says a new book, Hand of Providence: The Strong and Quiet Faith of Ronald Reagan, by Mary Beth Brown.

As Reagan lay battling for his life after being shot by John Hinckley in 1981, he was having trouble breathing. His skin had turned so pale, Nancy Reagan recalled. "He was the colour of paper - just as white as a sheet, with dried blood around his mouth."

After he had recovered, the president explained that he had looked up from the gurney and prayed. Although half-conscious, he realized someone was holding his hand.

"It was a soft, feminine hand," he wrote in his autobiography, An American Life. "I felt it come up and touch mine and then hold on tight to it. It gave me a wonderful feeling. Even now I find it difficult to explain how reassuring, how wonderful it felt."

Despite great efforts to find out who was holding his hand, no one in the hospital could help the president.

Ronald Reagan's children believe strongly that the mysterious nurses who aided their father and helped to pull him through this life-threatening ordeal were angels.
"Patty believes they were angels, and so do I," said Michael Reagan, who wrote the foreword to Hand of Providence.

The president had experienced a similar event when he was critically ill with viral pneumonia many decades before. He had been working on a movie with Shirley Temple when he became gravely ill.

In his autobiographical book, Where's the Rest of Me? he described how he spent many days shivering with chills and burning with fever. His temperature kept rising, and it was difficult to breathe.

"Finally I decided I'd be more comfortable not breathing," recalled Reagan. "I don't know what time of night it was when I told the nurse I was too tired to breathe. 'Now let it out,' she'd say. 'Come on now, breathe in once more.'"

This went on all night, and Reagan says he decided to keep breathing out of courtesy to the nurse.

Once again, despite his efforts to thank the mysterious nurse, Reagan could never locate her. This led family members to consider other possibilities - such as angelic visitations.

After the assassination attempt on his life in 1981, Ronald Reagan stated publicly that the rest of his life belonged to God. At the age of 93, he is America's longest-living president.