A story about Guardian Angels and white tail spiders

I never really believed in Guardian Angels when my son was little. But that was 20 years ago now, and as the years went by and I remembered our encounters with the white tail spiders I have changed my mind. There is no other explanation as to the times I saved my young son from a whitetail bite.

Back then, we lived in an old weatherboard house in a region of Australia that had a huge problem with white-tail spiders. At the time, these spiders were believed to cause a very nasty bite that could ulcerate and take months to heal if you were unlucky enough. The other problem was that they don’t just cast a web and sit in it. They are explorers and wander long distances searching for a mate and food. So, they can and do go anywhere.

We had 4 whitetail spider close encounters within a few short years. The interesting thing that happened each time, was that I did not have any thought about what I was doing, I was kind of on automatic pilot. I can’t remember the date order so I will just start with the less scary one.

When my son was sound asleep in his double bunk, for some unknown reason, I went to check on him and turned on the bedroom light. I am not sure why I turned on the light because I am sure I didn’t want to wake him. But as the light went on, I saw hundreds of tiny black spiders dropping from the ceiling. I called for my husband and we quietly bundled him up and took him out of the room. Once he was settled in our bed, we went back and sprayed the spiders. On checking they were whitetails that had just hatched from a very large egg in the wardrobe.

The second time, my son was playing on his bed with his Lego figurines. It was the middle of the morning and I decided to make his bed. I started to straighten the doona cover and not more than 2 inches away from my son’s leg, hidden under a fold in the doona was a large black whitetail spider. I do not know what prompted me to go and straighten his bed at that exact moment, but so very glad I did.

The 3rd time was when we had done some renovations to our bathroom. We had put in a spa bath which my 4 year old son loved to play in. We had not yet finished tiling the wall so there was a large open wall cavity at the top of the spa. I was cooking tea but then, without thinking, went into the bathroom to check on him. As I stepped into the bathroom, I saw a huge grey whitetail spider crawling across the top of my son’s head. I used my hand to flick it off and it disappeared into the wall cavity. My son was none the wiser and didn’t think anything of me flicking the top of his hair. I didn’t tell him about the spider.

The 4th time was a little stranger. My husband said he was putting our son to bed. I was watching TV in the lounge room and just called out to him to “check under his pillow”. We never checked under his pillow when we put him to bed and I had never told my husband to do that before. The words just came out without any pre-thought. The next thing I knew my husband was calling me for help. Underneath my son’s pillow was a large black, white tail. My husband had trapped the spider by putting an empty glass over the top of it and needed my help to remove it.

My son is 24 years old now and has never been bitten by a white tail spider (or any spider). I am sure his Guardian Angel was very instrumental in protecting him when he was little.

I am so glad I was ‘listening’.