When angels walk among us.

Original post date: 11.16.2022. Revised: 07.19.2025

There’s a man in our neighborhood whose early morning walks caught my attention.

Every day, he carries a black plastic bag and one of those sticks you use to pick up debris.

Last month, I stopped and talked with him. I assumed he was picking up trash along his walking route. I wanted to thank him for keeping the neighborhood clean.

“I can’t stand seeing empty bottles and garbage thrown along the streets,” he tells me. “It’s my responsibility as a citizen in this community to keep it looking good.”

There’s another man I see the mornings I go to the fitness center. He told me he comes here every day, and he started doing so when he retired about 25 years ago. Just a guess, but I think that puts him in his mid-eighties.

I asked him how he fills his days after he finishes his workout. “I go to the nursing home to visit my daughter. She’s been there 14 years. She can’t walk or talk, so I go to help her every day,” he said.

At a restaurant, a couple sits drinking coffee and eating pie. The man says to the woman, "Did I tell you about the time I got a flat tire in the parking lot of the airport?"

"No", she says. "I don't think you did."

The man recounts his story, and when he finishes, he picks up the fork with his right hand and stares at it for a long time.

The woman reaches across the table and slowly and gently removes the fork from his hand and places it next to the empty plate.

They sit in silence.

Minutes pass. Then the man says, "Did I tell you about the time I got a flat tire in the parking lot of the airport?"

The woman takes a long deep quiet breath. "No", she answers. "Why don't you tell me about it?"

Angels walk among us. They really do.

Sometimes, the smallest gestures speak the loudest. What’s a moment you’ve seen—or experienced—that reminded you how good people can be?

“Undercover Angel” — written and performed by Alan O’Day, © 1977.