My mother was the queen of hospitality and regularly had guests for a meal or a cup of coffee. Of course, she always had homemade baked goods ready to share, too.

Mom often quoted an adage about helping angels unaware. She was referring to Hebrews 13:2 in the Bible: “Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it.” (NIV)

I don’t know if Mom ever showed hospitality to an angel, but I sometimes wonder if I did.

It was a cold November day in the mid-1990s. A stranger walked into my office one afternoon. He was a 30ish man, neatly groomed and decently dressed but his outerwear appeared inadequate for the weather.

He introduced himself and told me he noticed the underside of the corrugated aluminum awning on our newspaper office building needed cleaning. He was right. The awning’s underside had grown dirty, but I couldn’t determine an easy way to clean it.

The visitor told me he was new to the area and had a job waiting in a nearby town but couldn’t start for a few days. Meanwhile, he said, he was broke, hadn’t eaten for a couple of days and needed some cash. He proposed to clean the underside of the awning for a fee.

Just how would he clean it, I asked. He said he would use steel wool pads with soap and water working from a ladder.

I reminded him that it was cold outside and working with water would be uncomfortable. He reminded me that he was young and tough and up to the job.

The awning really did need cleaning so I was interested. “How much would you charge?” I asked.

He named a reasonable figure.

He told me he could provide a reference from a business in Omaha for whom he had recently cleaned an awning. I called the number and the reference was positive.

Now I had to concern myself with liability issues. He obviously wasn’t self-insured. I called our company’s chief financial officer who agreed that the cleaning was needed and that the price was fair. We came up with a “cover-your-rear” contract which I asked the young man to sign.

The young man assured me he would get started the next day.

Then he threw a wrench into the plans: he asked if I would give him his payment right away as he needed to buy some food and find a place to sleep.

I have always been careful with money, especially my employer’s money. There was something about this young guy, however, that relaxed my attitude.

After some thought I instructed my business manager to cut him a check.

I showed the young man where he could get water and a ladder. Before he left he said, “Oh yeah, I should probably ask you if it’s okay to use some of the money to buy cigarettes. I really need some smokes right now.”

I don’t smoke so I couldn’t fully appreciate his immediate need but I assured him buying some cigarettes was okay.

A couple of my managers who witnessed the conversation couldn’t believe their always conservative boss would risk company money and cautioned that the guy might cash the check and disappear. I assured them I couldn’t believe it either but there was something about this fellow that made me comfortable giving him a chance.

By the end of the next day, a good portion of the underside of the awning was clean. Around 9 a.m. the following day the young man showed up with a smile and assured us he’d have the job completed by the end of the day.

Sure enough, by mid-afternoon the underside of the awning was clean. The fellow thanked me for the opportunity and was on his way.

We never saw or heard from him again.

My mother’s words about hosting an angel unaware played in my memory in the days that followed. Could it have been?

Some 30 years later I’m still unsure. If, in fact, the awning cleaner was an angel, it was a good experience. If he wasn’t an angel, it was still a good experience.

I do know that I didn’t see Della Reese or Roma Downey!

Arvid Huisman can be contacted at huismaniowa@gmail.com. ©2024 by Huisman Communications.