Author: Ray Terhorst

Danielle and I drove nearly 87 miles every Sunday to attend church services at the Albuquerque Spiritual Center.
The drive we enjoyed most Sundays was on Highway 55 from our small town of Mountainair to Albuquerque. The drive was pleasant as it was a beautiful drive through beautiful scenery. Red rock canyons, tall pines, and small villages were all a part of the journey. It also allowed for us to have great conversations or to listen to some of our favorite CD’s on our way to church.

I remember one gorgeous Spring morning. The sky was so blue, filled with puffy white clouds, and the day was one of those crystal clear days that seem too good to be true.

Danielle and I had been listening to “As Time Goes By” made popular in the movie Casablanca with Humphry Bogart and Ingrid Bergman.

Suddenly Danielle shouted to pull the car over. I assumed an emergency had been detected and I found a turnout and stopped the car. Danielle jumped out of the car and yelled for me to join her on the passenger side. I ran around the car as fast as I could and met Danielle at the passenger side door. By the time I got to her, she had cranked the radio up and stood there with a big smile on her face. She simply said, “Dance with me!” And I did.

We danced to As Time Goes By for the remainder of the song. I remember feeling a bit awkward to begin with but that feeling soon evaporated as I held and danced with the love of my life in my arms. A memory not to be forgotten,

Now getting back to the original story. It was Ferbruary and we had some snow a couple of days before that had mostly melted. The temperature that Sunday morning was near freezing. As I was in the middle of a turn, our car hit a patch of black ice and skidded off the highway. We had been going 55 Miles per hour and were now sliding sideways on the shoulder.

As we were sliding sideways I saw that we were heading directly for a large tree. I knew we were still going pretty fast and that we would hit on Danielle’s side of the car. I was frantically trying to get some control of the car back as we were nearing an impact that was certainly going to cause some injury to Danielle. As I continued to fight with control of the car and just as we about to make impact, the rear wheels found some purchase and we were propelled back on to the highway. I was in an adrenaline fueled state but was astonished as I looked over at Danielle.

She was not the least bit upset nor concerned. To see her you would have thought nothing out of the ordinary had happened. I questioned her about it and she gave me one of her many lessons in faith.

She said that she was prepared to let God make the decision as to her future as we hurtled towards that tree. She was prepared to let God handle the situation.

I was unnerved by her calmness but years later as she approached her own death, I saw the same calmness in her as she took her last breath. I have been touched by lessons learned from this amazing woman and have been able to apply them to my own life,.

Call it a miracle if you like. If not call it a coincidence. You decide. For me it was a moment in complete surrender to our Creator and His/Her grace to Danielle and I.

NOT GUILTY

Every year the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, (of which I was a member for 34 years) puts on a “Round Up” in Laughlin, Nevada. This is a 4 day reunion for retired folks from the department. In 2016 Danielle and I attended.

As is our custom, when we travel, we enjoy attending local Unity churches. On this particular Sunday we found a Unity church in nearby Bullhead City, Arizona. Laughlin and Bullhead City are only separated by the Colorado River which flows between them and also forms the border between Arizona and Nevada.

At the church we were warmly greeted andinformed that the minister was on vacation but there was a special musical event being performed by Armand and Angelina Della Volpe. This was right up our alley as we loved all kinds of music. We were not disappointed as Armand and Angelina put on an amazing performance. Armand is an accomplished flute player and Angelina is a classically trained soprano.

After finishing one of their pieces, Armand gave a short message that began this way: He stood up in front of the congregation and raised his hands and as he did so he spoke these words: “I now pronounce you NOT GUILTY!” Immediately there was heard a sigh that arose from the congregation. As Danielle and I discussed it later, we both felt as if a weight had been lifted off of our shoulders. What an amazing and profound impact those two simple words had. It was then that we decided we would use these words for others whenever the moment would arise.

Just a couple of weeks later, Danielle and I were meandering around Old Town Albuquerque. It is a part of the city that has been restored and is filled with shops, an American Indian Bazaar, a beautiful Catholic church, and other buildings of historical interest. We had just finished our lunch and were returning unhurriedly to our car when we spotted a shop advertising cowgirl apparel. Well if I had not mentioned it earlier, Danielle is a real cowgirl. She was a rodeo performer and had won the coveted title of “National Rodeo Cowgirl Champion” back in 1978. (By the way, she is very easy on the eyes and was twice runner up for Miss South Dakota.) So, you see, she loves cowgirl apparel.

We were the only customers in this small boutique and as Danielle browsed I struck up a conversation with the clerk. The clerk was a 35ish lady, small in stature, who spoke with a German accent. As we talked she shared that she was from Germany and that she was very ashamed of her countrymen. Even though she could not have been alive at the time, she felt guilty for the atrocities and execution of six million Jews during World War II. She felt that when people heard her German accent they were blaming her in part for this activity that had occurred under Hitler. As she was speaking, she was not making eye contact with me. She was looking down at the counter she was standing behind. Although I did not understand why she had taken on this unnecessary guilt and responsibility, I tried to be courteous and listen without interrupting. As I saw the sadness, the depression, and the fear in this young lady, those words of Armand came back to me. When she was finished speaking, I held up my arms with my hands and palms facing outward and spoke those words I had heard from Armand: “I pronounce you NOT GUILTY!”

What happened next was nothing short of amazing. Danielle and I speak of the transition often. Tears welled up in her eyes, color returned to her face, she began to smile and her entire countenance changed. If we had taken a before and after photo the two photos would have little in common. We were looking at a different person. She said a huge load had been lifted off her shoulders. She tearfully thanked us over and over again and gave us huge warm hugs. She couldn’t stop thanking us for coming into the store. We were dumbfounded.

As this young woman thanked us for the umpteenth time, we agreed to return next time we were back in town to hopefully continue our new-found friendship and we left the shop.

A few weeks later we were back in Old Town and thought to look up our new friend. We walked to where we knew the shop to be, but it was not there. I don’t mean it was closed; it was not there. The building wasn’t there. We walked up and down the streets several times and even drove up and down the streets looking for the shop. It was like it was never there. It was a “Twilight Zone” experience. We were once again dumbfounded, how could the shop just disappear? What kind of experience did we have? Was the shop and our new friend somehow transported here temporarily? Was it only for the purpose of her having the experience with us? To receive absolution of her imaginary sins? We don’t know! We have never seen this lady nor the store again! I could not find it listed when I did an Internet search. This was really eerie!

Maybe what happened was also a lesson for us to learn.

I learned a long time ago, that I needed to love myself so that I could love others. I can only love others to the extent I love myself. Both Danielle and I have come to the conclusion that loving ourselves must come first. A huge part of loving ourselves is being able to forgive ourselves for our shortcomings and change our behavior so we do not continue do the things that caused us to look down upon ourselves in the first place. We had to pronounce ourselves, “NOT GUILTY” and then we had to live those words.

Back in the 1980s I was assigned to the Marina Del Rey Sheriff’s Station. I was a newly promoted sergeant and the Marina was located on the ocean on the west side of Los Angeles in a very affluent area. The Marina itself was a very small area made up of expensive high-rise condominiums and apartments. Docking space in the Marina was expensive and provided permanent docking space for boats and yachts owned by the well-to-do and the rich and famous. There was docking space for more than a thousand boats.

Needless to say it was not unusual to cross paths with politicians and celebrities on a regular basis.

I once sat in the back of Thomas “Tip” O’Neil’s (At that time Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives) limo after being invited to get out of the rain while my deputies took a report from his aide who had been a victim of a robbery. Or stopping the son of Dan Rowan of Laugh-In fame for speeding. His son was being a jerk and throwing his dad’s name around when Dan showed up on the scene and put an end to his son’s tirade. Rick Monday who was at that time playing for the Dodgers had a six-pack cabin cruiser docked in the Marina and always offered me a cold drink whenever I passed by. Rick was know for his saving of the U.S. flag when he played for the Chicago Cubs. A fan had run onto the field and was preparing to ignite the flag in left field. Rick ran up and snatched the flag away and saved it from being burned. (Look it up). There are too many other instances to relate here. But the one I remember and loved the most is the one I will share now.

The Marina City Club in the Marina was a high rise comprised of numerous condominiums. the largest and most affluent places to live in the Marina at the time. The Marina City Club had their own security and we rarely received calls for service as security took care of their own problems.

One Sunday morning around 5 AM my deputies and I received a call to respond to the penthouse at the Marina City Club we were informed that a resident was holding a burglar at gunpoint This was very unusual as normally their own security would have responded but apparently the caller had dialed 911 and had bi-passed their security.

We hurried to the penthouse and entered via the unlocked door. There we came face-to-face with one of my long-time hero’s Dick Van Dyke. Dick was holding a shotgun pointed at the intruder he had captured.

What a sight to behold. Dick Van Dyke in his pajamas pointing a shotgun at a single male who had broken in to his condo.

As we entered, Dick broke out into his very familiar smile and said, “Thank God you’re here cause this darn shotgun doesn’t work.” He then laughed as we took the suspect into custody. Dick demonstrated that same wonderful warm personality we see him portray on the screen. No wonder he is so popular.

Dick Van Dyke had always been special to me and now I was face-to-face with one of my heroes.I had always loved his comedy but was also drawn to him as I knew he had imitated another hero of mine, Stan Laurel of Laurel and Hardy fame. But what made my endearment of him so special was that I knew that Dick was a recovering alcoholic like me and we suffered from the same disease. Somehow that made it even more special in those early Sunday morning hours. That made us a sort of brother-in-arms.

After the deputies departed I had a short conversation with Dick. He gushed his appreciation for our service and I gushed mine over his accomplishments.

I went my way and Dick Van Dyke continues to wow audiences in spite of being in his 90’s.

Thank you Dick Van Dyke for all you have done for us.

This is a love story…written in the stars.

As Danielle and I were dating, we had made the decision to live apart until we were married. She on her small ranch and me in my home on the Deer Canyon Nature Preserve, both in central New Mexico. We were separated by about a 20 minute drive.

Both Danielle and I are early risers and I especially enjoyed walking my two dogs, Sunny and Skye early in the morning. Sunny was a Chow-Golden Retrieve mix and sweet as pie. Skye was an Australian Cattle Dog and full of life. Both were extremely well behaved, my amazing partners and they loved to walk and run in the half hour or so before dawn.

My home sat alone on an 18,000 acre nature preserve where all vegetation and animal life was protected. I could not see my neighbor and the dogs and I could walk up the side of the mesa on a well defined trail. The dogs were off leash and that left me to behold the wonders of nature that surrounded me. With so little light pollution, the stars gave off enough light that I did not need a light to guide my path. I used to tell people that on a moonlit night you could sit outside and read the newspaper, it was so bright. As the three of us walked, we were surrounded by silence, peace, and the overwhelming presence of nature and God.

One morning, as I was walking, I looked up at the stars and my attention was immediately drawn to three very bright stars. These stars were aligned in a constellation and shape of a triangle, . It really caught my attention, and immediately I felt a divine tug. Not sure how to adequately describe it but I felt as if there was some significant meaning to what I was seeing. And then it came to me. It was meant to show my relationship with God and with Danielle. It was my own holy trinity. God, Danielle and I were represented by the three sides of the triangle. We were inside the triangle and we were meant to be together. I believed that we were divinely destined to be together.

I was anxious to return home and call Danielle to tell her of my experience. It was my habit to call Danielle each morning following my walk to spend a few minutes on the phone before our days began. I called Danielle.

Now lets here Danielle’s side of the story:

“Following my divorce, I had been alone for a few years and was not sure I should be entering into another permanent relationship. Even if I made that decision I questioned whether Ray was the man for me. In my prayers I asked God for a sign that I was making the right decision to move ahead with Ray.”

“One early morning, before dawn, I looked into the night sky and I saw three very bright stars. They were in the shape of a triangle and I saw this as a sign that God, Ray, and I were entwined in the triangle. I felt so strongly about this that I prayed to God that if Ray was right for me, let him see the same sign. But even as I prayed this prayer I thought this was an impossibility.”

“Twenty minutes later the phone rang and Ray said, “You need to go outside and look into the sky at three bright stars that are in the shape of a triangle. I think it means that God, you and me are meant to be together.”

“What? My head was in a spin. Was this really happening? I couldn’t believe it! I was so happy but I was still having difficulty wrapping my head around it. Both Ray and I were in a state of amazement as we went over the story again and again. God was real! My prayer really had been answered!”

Final Decision

From that moment on, Danielle and I were all in. This was not coincidence, this was not fate, this was faith in action. God is! It was apparent to both of us that our marriage was meant to be. To this day, we often revisit this story of the miracle in the stars and we still get goose-bumps as we relive the story. We have also used this experience as a way of anchoring our relationship. In difficult times or in times of disagreement, we remind each other of the story in the stars. This was our covenant with God. It was a divine agreement between the three of us. God had given us his promise and it was ours to keep. We knew in those few sacred moments that we indeed had a God who listens and lives.

Soon thereafter, following a church service, I knelt on my knees in the sanctuary of our church, and asked Danielle to be my wife. She said the word I had longed to hear, a resounding “YES”. On May 16, 2015, we took God at his word which was given to us in this sign in the sky, and we were married in our church in Albuquerque, New Mexico.

One last thing! Following that moment with the triangle of stars showing themselves to us, we have never seen them again. We looked the following day, the constellation was gone. We have looked many times. We even looked on the anniversary of the event; they were no where to be seen. We truly believe this moment was exclusively meant for us. It was our Star of Bethlehem moment and as we remember, we will continue to sing praises to God our King.

Our destiny was written in the stars.

Being a Deputy Sheriff I soon learned that people seemed to like to hear the stories of some of my experiences. I usually only tell them to some of my closest friends. They vary from funny to sad to crazy. This is one of those once in a lifetime stories of my unexpected encounter with Robert Plant, (lead singer of the Led Zeppelin rock band), Scotland Yard and my scoring backstage passes for a Led Zeppelin concert.

This all began back in the late 1970’s. I was assigned to work the night detective car at the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department Temple Station. Temple Station is located in the small town of Temple City, California a suburb located approximately a dozen miles from downtown Los Angeles.

On this particular evening, my partner had called in sick and I was working alone. Around 10 o’clock that night I received a phone call from London, England. This in and of itself was unusual and of course stimulated my curiosity. A male identifying himself as a someone who provided security for Robert Plant of the Led Zeppelin asked for my assistance. He related the following story:

A phone call was traced to a phone booth in our town of Temple City. The young male on the phone had managed to get through on the phone to Robert Plant. The caller identified himself as a doctor and was telling Robert Plant he had cancer and was going to die. Now this caller was very convincing because in order to get through to Robert Plant you had to go through Scotland Yard. The caller had convinced an officer in Scotland Yard that he was the real deal and had been transferred to Robert Plant. The security person I was speaking with said they had managed to trace the call and in fact still had the caller on the line. I was given the location of the phone booth, which was only a couple of blocks from the Sheriff’s Station. I jumped in my unmarked unit and raced to the phone booth. Sure enough, there was a young male talking on the phone. When he saw me approaching the phone booth he quickly hung up the phone. I immediately recognized the suspect as someone I had dealt with many times. Someone who seemed to be getting into trouble without even trying.

I detained the suspect and transported him to the Station where he admitted his wrongdoing. He said, he was angry and upset that the Led Zeppelin had cancelled a tour date for which he had tickets. He was directing his anger at Mr. Plant to get even for him cancelling the concert. This very imaginative young man had managed to get through to Mr. Plant and pass himself off as a doctor, telling him he had a case of incurable cancer.

Robert Plant had, in fact, cancelled the concert as he had broken his arm and was unable to perform. I called the security agent back and asked if they wanted to prosecute. I was told they preferred not to prosecute and if I was able to supply them with a photo of the suspect, they would be willing to let him go.

The suspect agreed to let me take his photo, in fact was enthusiastic about it as now the Led Zeppelin would know his identity and would have his picture. He was stoked!

I mailed the photo to the security agent and I thought that was the end of it. A couple of months later I received a call from the security agent. He said the Led Zeppelin was going to be performing in Los Angeles and they would like to invite me and my friends as guests. He sent me 12 front row guest passes along with backstage passes.

I was not into 1970’s rock in those days. But my younger brother Don was and I gave him the passes. Later he told me he had an amazing evening seeing the concert and meeting the band members following the performance.

All in all, it was a fun caper!