I often wonder if there is a God out there, and if there is, how would I know? I am not a particularly religious person, but there is a specific moment that comes into mind when I think of God and his legitimacy. This moment does not really feel like a coincidence, but there is a small portion of me that thinks it is.

In summer of 2018, I was on a high-school graduation vacation with my mom, brother, and boyfriend. We were staying at the beach in my hometown, but it was still considered a vacation. On one of the days we were there, my mom was checking in on some cameras she had installed in my grandmother’s house. My grandmother was 93, and she had fallen recently and was unable to reach her phone to contact anyone. My aunt, my mom’s sister, lived with my grandmother at the time, but she wasn’t home during the fall either. So, my mom decided she would install cameras to prevent something like this from happening again, since my grandmother was too prideful to wear a life alert necklace. These cameras sent a notification to my mom’s phone when there was movement, and my mom had received a notification about an hour prior to her checking the cameras. The short snippet the cameras provided was of my grandmother leaving the house without her cane. My aunt was not home at the time, and my grandmother was not supposed to be driving because she had a concussion from a few months prior. Of course, my mom began to panic, and she called my grandmother over and over, only to find out that my grandmother had left her phone at her house. My mom then called my aunt, who drove around town to my grandmother’s favorite spots to try and find out where she was. As it turns out, my grandmother was getting her nails done at a nearby strip mall. After she finished, my aunt followed her through a McDonald’s drive through and then home. This was something we all laughed about, and we were just glad that she was safe.

The next night, my mother, older brother, and I were at a local bar/restaurant when my mom got a phone call from my aunt. She was told that my grandmother fell, and she was taken by ambulance to the hospital. My mother told us that everything was okay, and she took the car to the hospital, leaving my brother and I at the bar/restaurant. She told us she would call if anything was serious, but she said that we should have fun. About an hour later, we received a phone call from my mom in distress. We knew it wasn’t good, and my brother had no choice but to run from the restaurant to our condo to get his truck. He ran over a mile, barefoot, and my boyfriend and I tried to keep up. He got his truck and picked us up on the way. After getting to the hospital, we realized that it was too late.

The next day, my mom couldn’t help herself, and she decided to look at the camera footage to see what happened. She hadn’t gotten any notifications of movement the night before, even though she had been receiving them all day. After searching and searching, she was never able to find the footage of my grandmother falling, the paramedics rushing in, my aunt cleaning everything up, or anything that related to my grandmother falling. This was a complete shock to us, especially because there was a camera in the kitchen where she fell.

To my family and I, this was, and still is, a miracle. The day before her passing, she was able to get her nails done and have a cheeseburger. We were speaking about her all day, and everyone was sharing the things they loved about her, not knowing that we would never see her again. I know that my mother would not be able to handle seeing what happened, and in a way, I am grateful that my aunt was the one to witness it because she is much stronger than most. I try to convince myself that God protected us that night, and he kept us from witnessing something that we didn’t need to see. He allowed her to have a day to do what she wanted, even when it didn’t seem possible. He let us all talk about her and discuss our lives with her in it. However, it might just be a coincidence.