“Hi. You don’t know me, and this is going to sound very strange.”

“I was told to give this to you.” It was the most convincing lie I’d ever told. I handed her a sealed envelope. She guardedly took it, never taking her eyes from my face.

I’ll never forget her face when she opened it, and saw the money inside.

I showed her my passport and boarding pass from the flight that morning.

“As you can see, I flew in this morning.”

And then wearily, as if I was tired of telling strangers these sorts of things I said “Look, it doesn’t matter to me if you don’t believe me but an angel told me to give this to you. She said you needed it.”

“We do!” she cried.

“Well, don’t thank me. I didn’t want to give you the money. Not in this recession. Thank God, I suppose.” Then I turned around and walked away.

The story of my visit made their local paper. It ran as a funny byline story. A modern miracle. An Irish Santa. Foreclosure averted. Now some people think that maybe we live in a stranger world than any of us realise.