You never know who you may meet. Meeting Angelina Klapperich yesterday at Colony Days (celebrating the founding of Palmer, Alaska) was a chance, unplanned, once in a lifetime encounter. I was in the right place, on the right day, at the right time. And not knowing her (and her not knowing me), it took all the courage this introvert could muster to ask for a picture with her!
Little did she know that she became at that moment a PSI (possible sermon illustration). For now, she is the subject of this blog. She gave me a plastic wrist bracelet with the message BE COMPASSIONATE: EVERY PERSON FIGHTS A PERSONAL BATTLE. I commented how timely this message was, given two celebrity suicides this past week (and the report released this week about the significant jump in suicides between 1999 and 2016, including a 37.4% rise in Alaska).
A card Angelina gave me included this quote from Mother Teresa---"Let no one come to you without leaving better and happier"--- followed by her good advice that "a smile, a listening ear, a compliment, or a small act of caring, all have the power to turn a life around."
Did I mention that Angelina is completing her reign as Miss Alaska and finished in the top 15 at the Miss America contest where she was voted "Miss Congeniality"? The photo below is real, not photo shopped (as if I would know how to do that!)
John
P.S. On to Wasilla...you never know who you may meet there:)
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