Coincidence or had Guardian Angel given up smoking?

I RECENTLY told you about my friend who’s started to consider the possibility he might have a Guardian Angel.

Previously, whenever life dealt him a bad hand, he maintained ‘If Guardian Angels exist, mine’s permanently hanging around the back of the building, puffing on a Woodbine!’

It was remembering the terrifying moment 30-odd years previously when he’d narrowly (miraculously?) avoided falling 20 feet on to concrete that made him wonder if ‘someone was watching over him’ that day.

He also recalled that in his younger days he’d narrowly escaped being knocked down by a car on a busy road.

Not once but twice!

In two different towns! But it was his recollection of when he was the innocent victim of a belligerent bully who’d threatened to sue him for thousands of pounds that really made him think his Guardian Angel had given up smoking.

My friend, being an honest man and never having been in this sort of situation before, was frantic with worry.

For weeks he could barely eat, wandering around the house at night, unable to sleep and on the verge

He became so desperate, one night he did something he hadn’t done since junior school.

He prayed.

For a life-long lapsed Catholic, this took some doing.

The very next day, out of the blue an old business associate he hadn’t spoken to for ages phoned for a chat and could immediately tell my friend was in a bad way.

Having had the problem explained to him, the business associate, who was, as Dickens might have put it, ‘not without influence,’ immediately arranged for his solicitors to take up the matter on my friend’s behalf.

It took a few months, but it was sorted out satisfactorily and all the legal costs were paid for by the business associate.

Now, it could well have been a co-incidence that my friend, who was at the end of his tether, just happened to receive that phone call the morning after he’d prayed for help.

But what prompted his old associate to phone him that particular day?

More importantly . . . How many of you remember Woodbines? of a breakdown.