"Every time a bell rings, an angel gets its wings"

Bear with me, this might be long. 

My dad was diagnosed with lung cancer a few days before Christmas 1989.  He started radiation to shrink it so he could breathe easier.  He took his treatments and was able to do a lot for the next year.  He and my mom made a trip to Maui to visit my uncle and aunt in June.  The whole year was good and we were thankful for the time we had.

On Christmas Eve, we always went to Eric's grandmother's house then later to Eric's parent's house.  We did not get home until after midnight each year.  In 1990, my in-laws were out of town so we left Eric's grandmothers and stopped by my parents.  My mom was cooking for the next day and my dad was already in bed but was still awake.  We were only there for a few minutes and I stepped into my parent's bedroom to say 'good-bye and see you tomorrow'.

We came home and got the kids in bed.  An hour later I received a phone call from my uncle that my dad had gone to the hospital and I needed to come back to their house so I could be there when my mom got back.  I made a 3 way call to my sister who knew right away that my mother would not be coming back unless there was no reason to stay at the hospital.

My dad had passed away a short time after we left.  I proceeded back to their house in the early hours of the morning with my sister already there and my mother resting in her bedroom.  The house was very quiet, the Christmas tree lights were on and then I heard it.  The ringing of a bell.  I wasn't sure where the sound came from, so I went into the living room where the tinkling was.  There was a chime/harp instrument on the back of the door that plinked when someone opened the door.  I assumed someone was coming in and the chime had made the sound.  No one was on the porch, no one had opened the door.  I reached up to strum one of the strings and realized it was not the sound that I heard.  There was a bell on the front of the tree and I touched it to hear the sound.  It did not match.  After a few moments of walking around the tree and moving any ornament that made a sound, I found the source of the ringing.  It was a bell that was hidden back in the branches.  There was NO WAY anything could have made the bell move.  The heat had not come on, there was no air blowing out of the vent. The ceiling fan was not on, it did not move any of the ornaments.  The room was absolutely still.

I am a big fan of the movie 'It's a Wonderful Life'.  I know the Bailey's have a bell on their tree that rings when Clarence gets his wings.  I will always believe that my parents had a bell that rang on their tree when my dad got his wings.  And I whispered when I heard a bell early on Christmas Day, 'Atta boy Daddy'.

 The bell now hangs in my 'It's A Wonderful Life' collection.