by Tom Fowler

Created on: February 08, 2008

The Sharpstown Angels

Sharpstown is in southwest Houston, TX, approximately 15 miles from downtown. It is home to some of the poorest and most disadvantaged people in the city.

Sharpstown was the site of two extraordinary events I experienced several years and several miles apart at opposite ends of the community, yet still they are events that I feel are closely related. I believe that twice in that Houston suburb I was visited by angels.

In those days I did outside telephone work in the Sharpstown area. One hot summer day, it was either 1991 or 1992, I cannot remember for certain, I had pulled my service truck up to a pay telephone at the edge of a large shopping mall parking lot. I dialed the number to automated dispatch and, just as the computer answered the call, a haggard looking man tugged at my sleeve and said simply, "Give me something." As I was trying to listen to the computerized dispatcher's audible commands, naturally I was not pleased with this man pestering me.

But, there was something about this man that kept me from ignoring him completely. He was dirty, unkempt and had a general look of deprivation and ill health. What I really noticed about this man was his face, which told me much. It had the hollow, gaunt look of defeat and sadness, as if he was carrying the weight of the world on his bony shoulders. As I struggled to write down what was being said over the telephone and pay attention to him at the same time, on impulse I obeyed his wish. Something I cannot explain about him made me do so, but I think it was the haunted look of one who is purely downtrodden that shone clearly through the street grime and stubble growth of whiskers. As much to get rid of him as anything else, I took a roll of vinyl tape from my tool belt and handed it to him. Out of the corner of my eye I saw him walk away, studying the roll of tape intently as he did so. I finished picking up directions from computer dispatch and looked up to see how far he had traveled. I looked in all directions and didn't see him anywhere. It didn't seem to me that he had had time to walk anywhere in any direction and be out of my eyesight, but he had.

I have thought often about this experience through the ears. If I was indeed visited by an angel sent to give me a test, then the timing was perfect. I was hot, tired, and on the phone trying to hear next to a noisy thoroughfare. The man caught me entirely off guard with his ill-mannered request for a handout when he knew I was engaged in

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