The Old Men and The Angel

Twenty-year-old Marilynne Krasni never thought she was special. She had lived in poverty all of her life and left La Grande, Oregon at her mother's urging to seek her "future and fortune." When she arrived in Portland to look for work as a printer, there were no job openings and she ended up as a cashier in a diner in downtown Portland.

She met ninety-year-old retired attorney and widower, Cecil Claybourne, in a nearby park while taking a lunch break. When they shook hands, the pain in his gnarled arthritic fingers vanished. When she visited him in the hospital after he became ill, his heart condition improved after she kissed him on the cheek and squeezed his hand. Who or what gave her this healing power? And the change in eye color, from light brown to a sparkly green—changes that occurred only upon her move to Portland.

Cecil told her to accept the "gift" and use it wisely. Because of Marilynne's healing ability, he was able to avoid a nursing home and return to his assisted-living residence in Portland. They became good friends and Cecil, her benefactor.

A recession took hold, and Marilynne was laid off from several jobs. But wherever she looked for work—Portland, Salem and finally, Eugene—elderly men she found in distress were healed when she shook or squeezed their hands. They all saw a bright white light surrounding her as she ministered to them. With her white-blonde hair, heart-shaped face, and sparkly green eyes, they thought she was an angel sent from God. But was she?

And why did Del Diego, the first man ever to kiss then make love to her, wake up beside her with sparkly green eyes and the ability to heal women? And months after his tragic death, her new love, Owen Riggo, wake up to the same?

Magic? The supernatural? A quirk of nature? Marilynne Krasni's unwitting journey into an esoteric and mystifying realm also shines a bright light on a number of societal issues: age, disability, class structure, and the belief in a higher power. But it is love and faith, empathy, compassion, and jealousy—eternal and irrefutable human emotions which anchor this story to reality.