Some years ago my phone line got crossed with someone else's creating sort of a "party line". I could hear them but they couldn't hear me. I discovered it when my phone rang and when I said 'Hello" I could hear two people talking to each other. I kept asking who is this? But they couldn't hear me at all, just kept talking. Every time this other party got a call, my phone would ring and I could hear their conversation. Strange thing is, if I made or received a call it didn't affect their line, sort of a one-way party line. I called the phone company and reported it and they said they would check into it.

Later that day the phone rang and I picked it up and it was my party-line friends talking but I didn't hang up this time, I just listened. From what I could tell about these people they had just moved into a rent house, there were a mother, two teenaged girls a younger son and a baby in the house. The baby belonged to one of the teenage girls as the mom referred to herself as a new "grandma" once.

There was one particular call that got my attention. The call must have been from an old friend of the family from what I gathered, first the mother talked to him, he asked how things were and she said they were all getting along fine, she was so glad to have gotten out of the mess she was in and that they would all be fine once they got settled in. The old friend asked how they were making ends meet and the mother said, "oh we're getting by fine, not to worry about us. We live on such and such street, have a nice house with a huge front yard for the kids and its right behind a grocery store."

Oh my God! When she said that, I knew exactly where they lived. The house wasn't exactly nice, but it was okay and the yard was huge. In fact it was right behind the store where I was working at the time. I sensed something wasn't right for some reason. Plus I knew exactly where these people lived, so that made it even more intriguing (okay I'm just nosey, but still you'd have listened too). The friend asked to speak to the daughter and when the daughter got on the phone, she started crying and talking really low, so the mother couldn't hear. She said that they felt safe here and their mom was looking for a job, but there wasn't any food because they didn't get the food stamps yet.

She said the baby was hungry and there was no milk and she only had two diapers left. She said she had been giving the baby sugar water in her bottle. The daughter said they really needed some food. The girl sounded like she was only about 17 years old and wasn't concerned with pride the way the mom was. The friend on the other line said he'd done all he could getting them help out of there and couldn't do much else, but not to worry something would come along. The girl said she guessed so, but she said there wasn't even anything to cook for breakfast the next day. The mother must have came back in the room because the girl changed her tone of voice and was talking about how great the place was and how happy they were there and so glad to get out of that other place and away from "him" (never figured out who "him" was I assumed the Dad or a boyfriend). The mom got back on the phone and they talked a little while, he wished them well and he'd call back and check on them. He told her to hang in there, no matter what, things would work out for the best.

After they hung up I felt so awful for them. My own baby had plenty to eat, plenty of diapers and was safe in her warm bed. And just down the street there was a little one with nothing but sugar water to drink for who knows how long and probably by now had no diapers. I just couldn't shake it off I couldn't sleep, it just kept gnawing at me from the inside and it wouldn't go away. I kept thinking I should do something but I didn't know what. It's not like I could just walk up to their door with a bag of food and say, "hey I'm your nosey neighbor, and I hear ya need some food." That just wouldn't work.

I worked odd hours then and I didn't have to go in until 6:00 a.m. so after arguing with myself most of the night, I decided I'd go to the grocery store very early before having to clock in at work and buy food for them and somehow get it to them. At least my employee discount helped. I bought diapers, baby food, powdered milk, formula, tuna, rice, beans, peanut butter, fruit, cereal, a few snacks and anything I could think of that wouldn't go bad if left outside (I had a plan, sort of). I ended up with three bags packed full of stuff that should feed them for a week, plus the diapers. After loading the groceries in my car, it was still dark outside about 5:45 a.m. I drove up into their driveway, it felt really weird and I started having second thoughts when I saw the closed gate. I didn't realize it was such a long walk from the gate to the front door.

What if they had a dog? Would it bite? Well I just sat there for a minute, the house was dark and I could tell no one was up yet. There was an old station wagon parked in the driveway right up against the front porch. I grabbed two of the lightest bags of groceries and I have to admit, felt sort of like an idiot. What if they opened the door just as I got to the porch? What would I say? Couldn't think about that now, couldn't think about a dog either, just do it. Somehow I got the gate open and walked up the long driveway, actually I ran and sit the bags on the hood of the car where they couldn't be missed. I ran back and got the heavier bag and the diapers and put them on the car too. I know I must have looked like a crazy person, but I didn't care. Finally I backed out of the driveway and drove back to work. I didn't tell anyone, it seemed like such a bizarre thing to do, but it was just one of those things, I had to do it and get it out of my system

After I got off work, I headed for home and as I passed by their house I saw the bags of food were gone. I went home and it wasn't but a few minutes later my phone rang and of course it was my party line friends. I picked it up just in time to hear the mother talking to someone and she said she couldn't talk long because she was in the middle of feeding the baby, and Deidre was cooking supper and it was almost done and the kids were getting ready to eat. I then heard some clicks and the line went dead. I guess the phone company uncrossed our lines. As I hung up the phone everything seemed right in the world at that moment. It was such a small thing to do but it gave me such a feeling of total peace. I slept great that night. I've often wondered ....do angels ever make phone calls?

This happened many years ago and for some reason I just never mentioned it to anyone, there didn't seem to be a reason to. But now for some reason I feel inspired to share it. I never heard from that family or knew what become of them, but I hope things worked out well in their lives over these years.

Alice Conwell owns and writes for http://resource99.com