Heavenly Creatures Get Down to Earth

The temptation is to begin this inspirational story about inspirational stories with a note of caution.

WARNING: If you are an emotional diabetic, if too much sweetness could cause an adverse reaction, do not read on. If in particular you’ve had your fill of the whole angels fad, do not read on.

But if, on the other hand, you like yarns about nice people who do nice things--even very, very nice things--then read on and meet Jerry and Lorin Biederman.

The Biedermans of Woodland Hills might be best described as Pollyannish and proud of it. They found their dog at Angel Puss Rescue and named her Disney. They admit to wearing rose-colored glasses and recommend it highly. Fairy tales, they say, do come true, they can happen to you, et cetera.

“I like living in that world,” Lorin says. Why not, she asks, look on the bright side? “Why not have a positive reality?”

All of that goes a long way to explain how it is they came to write “Earth Angels” (Broadway Books), a collection of stories that has sold more than 30,000 copies since its release in November. The book’s subtitle is “True Stories About Real People Who Bring Heaven to Earth.”

The term “earth angels,” the authors say, may apply to loved ones or strangers, for deeds large and small. And because the authors happen to live in the San Fernando Valley, it is the setting for many of the heavenly deeds they discovered. They heard more than 3,000 stories and printed 67 of them.

The Biedermans asked friends and neighbors for stories. They circulated fliers, placed ads in newspapers, encouraged teachers to make appropriate classroom assignments, established a telephone hotline and a Web page. But serendipity brought them some of their most remarkable stories.

One morning, the Biedermans explain, they had finished breakfast at a coffee shop and had their notebooks out when the waitress came to clear the table and offer more hot chocolate. “I’m sorry, I don’t mean to be nosy,” the waitress said. “It’s just that the word angels caught my eye, and I love angels.”

And that was how they met “Noreen” (a pseudonym) and heard the tale that would be chosen, with good reason, to begin their book.

*

Noreen, it turned out, was the mother of two teenage daughters whose father had a taste for liquor and violence. She took the girls and left, so poor they lived in homeless shelters. She enrolled the girls in school and made sure they were well-groomed and “presentable,” but they made a pact to keep their living circumstances a secret. Noreen found a waitressing job but apartments weren’t cheap and she never mustered enough money for move-in costs.

One day one of her daughter’s friends invited them over for dinner. Noreen used the shelter’s kitchen to bake cookies. Noreen and the girl’s mother, Mary, hit it off.

Friendship grew though Noreen never gave Mary a phone number. Noreen would tell Mary how she wanted to invite them over for dinner and then made up excuses why she couldn’t. If the stove wasn’t broken, the air conditioner was. Yes, she told Mary, she wanted to find a new apartment.

Then one day Mary dropped by the coffee shop and asked Noreen to join her during a break. They went for a walk and found a little home with a “For Rent” sign. But Noreen told her she could afford only $350 a month--about one-third of what the home would demand.

The next day Mary appeared with remarkable news: The owners would accept $350 from good tenants who would care for the property. And so it was that Noreen and her daughters moved out of the shelter and into their first real home in years. She planted flowers, “which made me feel like I was planting roots.”

Over the holidays Noreen, worried that her rent check might be late, decided to drop it off at the post office. “I was standing in line when I heard a familiar voice ask for a package from the box where I sent my rent.”

Yes, it was Mary, and yes, she and her husband were Noreen’s benefactors. One of Noreen’s daughters had let it slip they were homeless, and Mary and her husband decided they would be ideal tenants.

“She hadn’t wanted me to know,” Noreen explains, “because she was afraid I would think it was charity.”

And now every week, Noreen says, “I bring Mary fresh flowers from our garden.”

*

It isn’t easy being in the angel business. One publisher told the Biedermans’ agent the project sounded “too Christian,” which amused the authors, who are Jewish. Oprah Winfrey, the Biedermans say, was interested in featuring their book, but seemed less interested after the publicity-shy Noreen balked at their request to share the story publicly.

Meanwhile, a reality-based “Earth Angels” television program is in development. In a demo, LAPD Officer Martin Whitfield, wounded in last year’s North Hollywood bank shootout, describes how dispatcher Lupe De La Cruz talked him through the ordeal.

Certainly there is no shortage of remarkable stories.

Jason Pittman, 22, died in November 1996 after suffering a heart attack 12 hours after undergoing a lung transplant. Four weeks later, his mother, Susan Wright, noticed the “earth angels” ad in a local newspaper and called the Biedermans. Jason’s inspirational struggle, his mother says, had received substantial media coverage, but she wanted the world to know why Jason was an angel.

Wright, a Tehachapi resident, shared the story of how Jason had survived a brain tumor as a toddler and lived a richly inspiring life that lasted 22 years. He and his mother helped establish the Ronald McDonald House program for gravely ill children and their families. Jason, who stood only 3 feet, 11 inches tall, was manager for the La Canada High School basketball team. La Canada High now sponsors an annual “Jason Pittman Alumni Game” to promote organ donation.

And some of the stories are more prosaic.

Lorin Biederman says one of her favorites came from 17-year-old Janeth Hernandez of Ontario, Calif. The teenager told of a miserable day that had her contemplating running away from home or suicide. She was riding in her mother’s car when she began to cry.

Then she noticed a man sitting on a curb. Their eyes met and he offered a sympathetic smile. “I could see in his eyes,” Janeth said, “something that seemed to say, ‘It’s OK. I understand. Things will get better.’ ”

To Lorin, the story demonstrates the power of a smile.

One of Jerry’s favorite stories came from Tiffany Suzanne Sanford of Encino, a loving tribute to her father for a lifetime of devotion, particularly during a life-threatening illness. “I wish everyone in the world could have one hour’s worth of the love I’ve gotten from my dad,” Tiffany declares.

The story carries extra meaning for him, Jerry says, because of Jennifer Nicole, the Biedermans’ baby daughter.

“On the same day we sent our completed manuscript to New York,” he says, “we conceived Jennifer.”

And so she is, they say with a smile, their own little earth angel.

Scott Harris’ column appears Tuesdays, Thursdays and Sundays. Readers may write to him at The Times’ Valley Edition, 20000 Prairie St., Chatsworth 91311, or via e-mail at scott.harris@latimes.com Please include a phone number.