By Junior Johnson

I’d like to begin my story by proudly saying I’m a Christian and I believe in the power of Prayer. I’m convinced that we all have a Guardian Angel who tries to watch over us.  Later in life I named mine Godfrey Daniels, after an expression the great comedian W.C. Fields used in some of his stories.

My mom told me of the first time my Guardian Angel protected me. I was 3-years-old and we were living in a little share croppers house on CoCo Bed Road near Cloutierville.  My Dad worked in the logging woods and planted cotton for the Estate of Sam LaCaze.

On the days my mom was in the field picking cotton, she would fix up a comfortable pallet on the turn row and have a little tent to keep the burning sun off me. She would make us a lunch of sandwiches and kool-aid and check on me every time she made her way back pulling her sack of cotton.

On a return trip she discovered me missing and began frantically calling for me. You know a mother’s anguish.

Our little house was on the riverbank of Cane River and she just knew that I had gone down and fallen in the water. She went down the riverbank and spotted my 3-year-old butt out on a tree limb overlooking the water, as I dropped cotton locks into the water laughing and watching them drift downstream. I shutter to think what would have happened had I fallen into the water.  Thank you my Guardian Angel.

About three years later I was playing in a field near the same house and there was a huge Black Angus Bull grazing along a fence, trying to get the green clover on the other side.  He had a horn span wider than I was tall. Having no fear I pulled up a handful of clover and attempted to feed the Bull.  He swiped his head across my body and one of his horns ripped my shirt and cut a gash across my chest and broke a rib. I ran home screaming and crying. My dad was home and he and mom put me in the car and rushed me to our doctor in Natchitoches. Thank you my Guardian Angel.

As far as I know I did not have to bother my Angel for years but that is what they watch over us for.

I was a young college student working one summer as a route supervisor for Walker Farms Dairy in Alexandria.  One morning I was driving a home delivery milk truck out in the country.

It was nearing daylight and I had just placed my customers order at his back door and was arranging products in my truck when the wind blew the back door closed. I knew that I was in trouble because  there was no interior door latch and my customer worked nights and was sound asleep for hours. As I sat in the cold darkness I began to get scared. I attempted to kick the door open to no avail. Although not air tight I was using more oxygen than was coming in.  After about 30 minutes I began to get light headed and could hear muffled traffic outside.

When I had almost given up the back door flew open with blinding light. Someone had seen my truck parked there for a while and figured something was wrong. Thank God because I would have run out of oxygen within the hour. Thank you again my Guardian Angel.

It was about 10 years later when I really needed my Guardian Angel again.

I had just begun my career in the Oil & Gas Industry and was working on a little offshore contract for the old Gulf Oil Co. with only one other person.

It was grocery day and when the supply boat arrived my co-worker lifted the grocery box from the boat by crane and once settled on deck I opened the door and began removing the small packages of groceries. All of sudden out of the corner of my eye there was a flash movement and I had a fierce hit on my head which knocked my hard hat off as I fell to the ground outside the box. I was breathless but told my coworker I thought a snake had struck me. Looking at my hard hat there was two huge scratches imbedded into the hard plastic along with a liquid which we presumed to be poison from the snake.

My co-worker killed the snake while I was changing my pants. It was 6 feet long and had 14 rattles. It probably slithered into the box at the dock. Thank you again Godfrey Daniels my precious Guardian Angel.

I know my Guardian Angel was always looking out for me but it was not until almost 30 years later when my doctor told me that I had Cancer. I was really scared and said extra Prayers.

Thank you again for pulling my old carcass through the painful treatments that you and my precious wife Ginny helped me get through until my Oncologist said I was Cancer-Free.

Ten months after I returned to work my Guardian Angel Godfrey Daniels was called upon again on Oct. 9, 2013 as I was returning home to my sweet wife and our helicopter crashed in the Gulf of Mexico. I’m sure Godfrey said he was being overworked, but I know he will always be there.

If it’s true that we have nine lives then Godfrey Daniels, and of course my Lord and Savior has gotten me through six of them and my Faith is still strong…

I know that your Guardian Angel will also…..as the words of the great Brooks and Dunn song “I Believe” goes…….