It was a day of gale force winds of the worst kind, along the Atlantic seaboard in Cape Town, South Africa. It was not a day to be out and about, but my cousin Raymond, who is not in the best of health and has great difficulty walking, had an urgent dentist appointment.
He and his wife made it safely to the Medical Centre. The procedure completed, they went back downstairs. There they discovered, to their dismay, that the wind had become even stronger. Nola offered to fetch the car, so that Raymond would only have to walk a short distance.
As it happened, he made it to the appointed spot but had to cling onto a pole for support, such was the strength of the wind. With difficulty, Nola brought the car safely along side the kerb and Raymond attempted to open the passenger door with one hand, whilst clinging onto the pole with the other. Because of the wind, he was unable to open the door wide enough to climb inside, so Nola, having pulled up the handbrake, got out of the car to help him.
However, the force of the wind was so great that two things seemed to happen at once. The car began to roll forward just as a powerful gust of wind forced the car door against the pole. Raymond let go just in time, but having no support, he immediately fell flat on his back, with his body on the pavement and his head in the gutter, mere centimeters away from the front wheel of the car, which was still moving forward.
He felt he was done for - certain that terrible injury or even death awaited him, as Nola, shaking like a leaf, rushed back into the car to try to stop its progress.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, there appeared a woman, wearing a helmet and riding a motor cycle. Leaving the cycle next to the car, she rushed up to Raymond and with tremendous strength in that very strong wind, she managed to lift his head up and out of the gutter and onto the pavement. She then rushed into a nearby shop and came out with a length of cord. With this, she quickly secured the broken door to the back door of the car, so as to enable the couple to somehow make their way home.
Then, as though it was all in a day’s work for her, and without so much as a backward glance, she mounted her motor cycle and took off into the teeth of the wind.
Raymond, who had thanked her profusely, only managed to get her first name out of her, which he now cannot remember.
Nola, still shaking, pushed Raymond into the back of the car on the driver’s side and somehow managed to get them home.
Who was their saviour? Had they been visited by an angel, or perhaps Elijah the Prophet himself, in one of his many disguises? Perhaps we shall never know, but for Raymond, it was obviously a miracle!
