Twice President Reagan faced life-threatening experiences and twice he had encounters with angelic beings who comforted him and helped pull him through his medical crises, says a new book, "Hand of Providence: The Strong and Quiet Faith of Ronald Reagan," by Mary Beth Brown.
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As Reagan was fighting for his life after being shot by John Hinckley March 30, 1981, he was having trouble breathing. His skin had turned so pale, Nancy Reagan remembers, "He was the color of paper – just as white as a sheet, with dried blood around his mouth."
Reagan later recalled looking up from the gurney and praying. Half-conscious, he realized someone was holding his hand.
"It was a soft, feminine hand," he writes in his autobiography, "An American Life." "I felt it come up and touch mine and then hold on tight to it. It gave me a wonderful feeling. Even now I find it difficult to explain how reassuring, how wonderful, it felt."
Despite great efforts to find out who was holding his hand, no one in the hospital could help the president.
Reagan's children believe those mysterious nurses that helped pull their father through this life-threatening ordeal were angels.
"Patty believes they were angels, and so do I," said Michael Reagan, who wrote the foreword to "Hand of Providence."