The Rescue Station
William Lindemann wrote that as a youngster he often roamed alone through the woods around his Great Lakes home. As a scout, he had learned survivor techniques and felt comfortable in the wilderness.
But he always felt a presence with him that he called his “General Direction."
One bitterly cold February day, Lindermann bundled up for a hike across a frozen lake bordering his college campus. The lake was about nine miles long, five miles wide and, in the dead of winter, frozen solid.
From where I stood overlooking the bumpy hillocks of ice and snow, I estimated it would take me four hours to reach the middle and return”, Lindemann wrote. But by the time he reached the turnaround point, an intense and deadly winter storm swept across the frozen lake. Blinded by the stinging snow, he stumbled through the roaring blizzard becoming weaker with each step.
“ Please, dear God,” he cried out, “Helped me find my way!"
Suddenly, a loud foghorn sounded from a rescue station only blocks from Lindemann’s house, and he heard a voice call out: “Be careful! The breakwater is open and deep."
Lindemann crawled toward the sound of the foghorn and the calm voice that cut through the howling wind. “Be careful” the voice repeated. Stay to the right, and climb the concrete wall when you reach it."
Inching forward on his hands and knees, Lindemann finally reached the shoreline and safety. I felt my way up through the deeply drifting snow to the door of the rescue station,” he continued. “The next thing I felt was being half pulled and half carried inside. A man with dark hair and a beard was there with hot coffee brewing.
“When I asked him why he was there in the middle of winter, he said he was finishing some research. After regaining his strength, Lindemann thank his rescuer and continued home.
The next day, he returned to the building only to find it locked. When Lindemann dug through a snow drift to reach the door, he found a tattered sign that said: CLOSED FOR THE WINTER.
I called the sheriff and was told that not one had access to the rescue building during the winter and no one had been there the day before,” Lindemann concluded in his letter. Only then did he realize it was his guardian angel who had appeared to guide him through the blinding storm.