19. Helped by an angel

It was good to be home. We prayed for mum’s protection on her journey for she was on her way to us. Branislav went at 6 am to meet mum at Stuttgart bus station. They arrived later than what we expected and they had some story to tell.

Mum’s bus travelled from Slavonski Brod, our hometown, stopping in Zagreb and in Germany stopping in Munich and Ulm before reaching Stuttgart. They travelled at night and when they reached Munich mum knew they needed another 2 ½ hours to Stuttgart. She was so tired that she fell asleep. She woke up when the bus stopped next and thought it was Stuttgart, got her things and went out. Collected her suitcase and the bus left. Only then did she realise it wasn’t Stuttgart. It was Ulm, 90 km away from Stuttgart. The several passengers that came out of the bus had already left so mum was on her own in a strange place at 5 am.

“Heavenly Father help me not to despair and bring me home to my children,” was her prayer. She noticed that the train station was across the road, and she made her way there. Mum spoke only Croatian and just couple of words in German; please, thank you and a few greeting words. There were a couple of passengers waiting for the train at the station. Mum approached a young man standing close to the ticket machine.

“Stuttgart, bitte”, is all she could say to the young man. She offered the money and he understood that she wanted to buy a ticket to Stuttgart. He smiled and nodded, put the money in the machine, got the ticket and gave it to mum with the change. To mum’s great surprise the ticket cost only couple of Euros. Mum and the kind young man communicated in sign language rather than words. He pointed to the time; in 15 minutes the train was coming and he was going to Stuttgart. He pointed to the bench for her to sit and wait with him.

The train came and two of them went in. Mum knew that Branislav would be worried when the bus came without her, and she needed to tell him what was happening with her. The young man was sitting opposite of her. She took her telephone notebook out with Branislav’s mobile number. The young man understood and took his mobile out. He dialled Branislav’s number and when he answered told him that mum was on the train to Stuttgart. He let mum speak to Branislav. Mum offered the young man money for the use of the mobile but he kindly smiled and said, “Nein, danke.” Mum was so grateful and smiled back.

At Stuttgart station Branislav waited for mum. When the train stopped the young man helped mum with her things and saw that Branislav was there to meet her; they said goodbye and departed. With a small delay mum made it to her children.

“You were helped by an angel granny!”, the girls shouted. “How did he look? What kind of ticket did he get you?’”, the girls were so excited and the rest of us too.

20. When the car spoke

More surprises were ahead of us that day. We all had good breakfast. I went to bed to rest, mum took care of the domestic chores, Branislav and the girls packed the car.

“I’m not quite sure if this is the best idea for Branislav to travel with the girls on his own.” I confided in mum. Mum responded, “ After my experience today I can only say that God has everything under control when we trust Him.” We prayed, said goodbyes and they left. Mum encouraged me to sleep for I was still very weak.

It was getting close to lunchtime, I could smell mum’s cooking. Who would think that mum was going to look after me. The phone rang, mum answered, and I heard her coming to my room.

“Wait until you hear this. They are coming back. Branislav and the girls are driving back and they were asking if lunch was going to be ready soon.” mum smiled. “God has His own way to direct our lives”, she added.

“What is going on? Are they OK?”, I started getting worried. “They are fine, Branislav said there is something wrong with the car. We’ll find out soon.” Mum answered.

In half an hour three hungry travellers were at the door. The girls rushed to me with their story, “Mum our car spoke today.” Branislav came all confused and a little bit frustrated. “What happened?”, I was eager to find out.

Branislav described how on the way to Ulm, warning lights started blinking and he had to stop to find out what they meant. From the car manual he wasn’t quite sure what it was and stopped at the nearest garage. The mechanic checked and said there was something wrong with the electronic system of the car and he’d better take it to the garage to be fixed before going on a longer journey. When Branislav asked if he could fix it in his garage he said no. Branislav needed to take the car to Audi garage and it normally takes couple of days to fix it.

There was no other choice but to turn back. As they turned back to drive home the warning lights stopped blinking. So, Branislav decided to turn back to continue his journey. As soon as he started driving in direction away from Stuttgart, the light started blinking again. Once again he turned back to drive home. As he was on his way home the lights stopped blinking. Branislav smiled and said, “My donkey spoke like in the story of Balaam. ”(Numbers 22:21-33) We all laughed and were happy to be together again.

The car was taken to the garage and indeed it took them couple of days to fix the problem. Every day I was regaining my strength and it just became clear that God wanted us to travel together. By the time the car got fixed I was ready to be on the road with Branislav, the girls and mum. What a happy journey that was.