The Angel

When clearing out my late mother’s house a few weeks ago, I found the Christmas Angel which had adorned our childhood Christmas trees for as long as I could remember. This, the angel who inspired the very angel mentioned in my novel, The Ghost Girl at Angel Cottage.
Naturally, I was moved to keep the angel.
This morning, having put up our Christmas tree, a little early for me this year (like many, I wanted to shrug off the current restrictions and threats with some early Christmas cheer) I stood back to admire it and realised that there was one thing missing…The Christmas Angel.
I looked through the boxes of decorations brought in from the garage…it was nowhere to be found.
Now, I remember packing it carefully in a shoebox last January, so it must be somewhere. A vague memory of seeing it marooned somewhere in the house when all the boxes had been put away, comes to mind.
I go into the barn – yes we have a barn in our front garden – this also inspired the story…I searched upstairs and down but found nothing resembling a Christmas Angel. I almost felt part of the story by now.
Coming back into the house, I opened a few cupboards and peered into their depths. It was then that I saw my mother’s Christmas Angel, lying on a shelf where I had put it just a few weeks before.
Picking it up, noting how worn and tired it looks, I have no option, this is the angel to sit on my tree this year.
Now I am wondering how much of the story is true…

(This ‘angel’ was given a wand at some point which she still holds to this day – we always thought she was a fairy)