Andy Sommerville lives a quiet life in a Southern town in Virginia. His "quiet" goes up in flames one Saturday afternoon during a robbery at his gas station. He is in the hospital recovering from burns to his hand and face and a bad knock on his head. Andy has been out for days and describes his state as just being black, somewhere between heaven and hell. As he awakes, his trusty old friend, "Old Man," is at his bedside to give him more words of wisdom.

"Old Man" has been with Andy since Andy's parents died when he was 10, when Andy came to live with his grandparents. Andy thinks of him as his "angel." No one but Andy can see "Old Man." He guided Andy through the rest of childhood and into his adult life. He's the one who told Andy he would need the box in the end. Andy keeps a wooden box of "memories," objects that the "Old Man" has told him to keep to help him remember people and situations that have occurred throughout his life. That box is in the hospital with him now.

Andy has another visitor in his room, Elizabeth. She is seated in the chair next to his bed. "Old Man" tells Andy that he will not be seeing him again, but he should listen to Elizabeth. She will guide him through this ordeal. Andy thinks Elizabeth is some kind of counselor when she begins asking him all sorts of questions he really doesn't want to answer.

Eventually, Elizabeth gets Andy to go through the box and tell her the stories behind each of the objects there. She sits and listens, cutting paper all the while, interjecting questions here and there that give Andy a lot to think about in how he has lived his life. Some of Elizabeth's questions are tough and Andy becomes angry at times. He is still struggling with finding his own sense of place in this world. Did Andy learn all the lessons he should have learned from the experiences he is recollecting?

PAPER ANGELS is a masterfully told story about the lessons we learn in life and how they prepare us for discovering our purpose here. Elizabeth's words of wisdom encourage us to look beyond what we normally see, not just seeing with our eyes, but learning to see with our hearts. Billy Coffey's inspirational story about faith and trust is a definite must-read. I found myself writing down many of the wise and wonderful expressions used by both "Old Man" and Elizabeth in this story, expressions worth referring back to as reminders of how we should live our lives. Don't miss this one!

Book Summary

Andy Sommerville seems no different than others in his rural Virginia community, but what sets him apart is that his best friend is an angel. The angel is God's answer to a childhood prayer Andy offered to a twinkling star that his deceased mother once called "the door to heaven." The first angelic proclamation instructs Andy to find the wooden keepsake box in his grandparents' attic. Over the years, he directs Andy to fill it with apparently meaningless objects from twelve people with who Andy randomly crosses paths. Andy's world is turned upside down when a brutal attack leaves Andy burned and the boy he loved as a son dead. At this crucial juncture, the angel abandons him to loneliness and pain. All that remains is the wooden box Andy has always kept safe, and a new angel, who will use its contents to reveal truth to him as a result, he discovers the defining truth of his life, new hope in the community he loves, and greater trust in the God who sustains him.The story is told from Andy's hospital bed, where he awakes feeling God has abandoned him. Without being preachy or saccharine, the author brings the small town to life and reveals a spiritual secret--the presence of angels--that helps a wounded man discover the defining truth of his life, place new hope in the community he loves, and trust totally in the God who sustains him.