I’ve known Angela in many different situations over the last 23 years. We’ve been close friends and came to have a deep trust in each other to be a support in difficult times. It became almost a standing joke between us to ask which one wanted to have a problem so the other could be the psychiatrist. We had a mutual understanding between us that no matter how down we felt or how difficult some obstacle seemed, we would accept the other dragging us back to where we could see the good again.
She had a unique gift for drawing people to her. I can’t think of anyone she got to know who didn’t come to value her cheerful spirit and constant thoughtfulness in always being sensitive to even the littlest needs of others. Her preaching almost always went to meddling, as people would in just a few minutes find themselves pouring out personal things on their hearts they’d never have dreamed of telling a stranger, but her love and concern for them just drew it out of them. People who had only met her once would still remember and ask about her months later. She’d touched them that profoundly in just a few moments. Her heart was always reaching out to anyone in need.
One time we were talking to someone she’d befriended, a manager of a fruit market who was facing the loss of a loved one, and she broke into tears. She felt his loss so intensely. It was as if she could reach inside another’s heart and sense everything as if it were her own. I’m sure that tender, gentle heart is being very well cared for now.
Her straightforward and sometimes blunt nature caused her to often rush in where angels feared to tread. She had a boldness that seemed to have an innocence about it, like a little child bursting into the room amid some somber ceremony and with a big smile marching in and taking center stage to innocently quote her favorite poem, and every heart would melt and forget what they were doing, so captivated by her simple ways that they couldn’t resist being drawn to her and to her Savior through her.