He saw the look on his dad's face. He would never forget it. Dad had asked his wayward nineteen-year-old son, ''Where are you living now, Pat?"

"Here!" he exclaimed. His siblings cheered. Mom smiled. Dad wondered what was next.

Later that night, his dad started reminiscing about the last few years in Billings, Montana. Nine years ago, he was in a financial hole that seemed impossible to ever climb out of. He had skipped paying the last ten house payments. He hadn't gotten late payment statements or anything. He went into the bank and looked up an old friend who worked there. Someone had made a clerical error eleven months earlier and had recorded receiving ten payments instead of one. His banker friend said that he was going to make another clerical error and increase the term of his loan for another ten months. He told dad he would call him for the next few months to remind him to make his house payment.

Dad prayed for a better paying job. Months later, Dad fell into his business where all of a sudden, he employed one hundred salesmen. Years later, he prayed for a bigger house, and someone mentioned that a neighbor wanted to move into a smaller house. Somehow, they traded houses, and moved within a month or two. Now they had a house with one more bedroom and one more bathroom. He had also prayed for one less child in the house. I was the one less child he had prayed for. He mentioned Matthew 18:10 about his personal guardian angel. "Why the hell would I want to know all that crap?" Pat wondered as he headed for the party.

Years later, after the passing of both of his parents and most of his older relatives, he wonders, "What was my dad thinking, how could he have done that, why did he do that..." Pat decided that his children could read what he was thinking, how he did that, why he did that. He decided to write it down. After a few years of writing and losing many typed backups, he started sorting his collection of stories into two groups: Moments and My Guardian Angel. Publishing a book, combining these two groups of stories, is an attempt to save his writings. There is much more. This is just the first book.

--Pat Hughes

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