I was watching the movie, Ordinary Angels, a true-life story about a 6-year-old girl, Michelle, who was desperately in need of a liver transplant. After seeing the movie to the end I suddenly felt small, and that I have wasted my life and didn’t accomplish much.
The movie starts with the little girl losing her mom a few years prior, and she was raised by her incredible dad, an older sister, a doting grandmother, and a stranger who came out of the blue to help . This stranger, Sharon, who has her own demons and struggles, makes it her mission to fight for this dying girl. This stranger initially had zero connections to the family and yet she makes it her business to raise money at her beauty shop, lobbies the hospital to forgive $400k in bills, and serves as the spark to make it all happen.
I can’t do justice to the story of the family’s struggles to get a liver transplant. The road taken by the family is brutal and hard and it makes our own lives look like easy street.
Let’s get to the plotline — in the middle of a brutal snow storm, they get the call that the long awaited organ was ready and they need to be in a faraway city and on the operating table in 6 hours. The driving snowstorm causes the roads to be closed and the father desperately drives off road to get his dying girl to the hospital, with little progress. You could feel the frustration and superhuman effort by her dad and supporters, but the storm seems to put to end the journey for a new liver. Without a new organ, Michelle will die in a matter of months.
In the midst of the driving snow comes help. Sharon, who doesn’t know the word failure, gets the local news station to broadcast for any help. A helicopter pilot and former veteran volunteer to transport the patient in the driving snow, but the pilot needs a clear path and landing spot in the whiteout conditions.
The towns folks converge on the parking lot and shovel away a huge area for the helicopter to land.
When the pilot can’t see the landing spot, the people lay their colored coats as a target for the pilot and headlights from the shovelers light the safe spot. The plane is donated from corporate folks and the heavens open up as they rush to make the awaiting plane. The plot is so unbelievable, but it is true. I don’t want to ruin the movie (too late), but the driving force behind this miracle is a local beautician who is a recovering alcoholic. She does extraordinary things as she faces her daily struggles.
A few takeaways – whenever the little girl had a medical emergency, her loving Dad would playfully ask, “Want to go on an adventure?” The child would giggle and answer “YES,” and the Dad would scoop up the ailing child and drive her to the emergency room.
The point of ruining this plot line is to let the rest of us know that ordinary people do extraordinary things every day. The real question is what have we done recently that is on scale of that miracle seen in that Kentucky winter? Truth is, we are all ordinary people, and all have the capability of doing extraordinary things.
Let’s get to work.