Healing & Angels
When I was diagnosed with stage IV lung cancer at 42, what mattered quickly became clear.
Connection. Presence. Love.
During a 2 week stay in the hospital while my diagnosis unfolded, I was visited by dear friends who gifted me crystal angels. I held these angels during moments that required more courage than I knew I had. Those angels became quiet reminders that love was near, even when fear was louder.
I left the hospital not knowing what the future would bring, but grateful that I could go home and hold my children for one more day. And then I woke up one day after another and began to breathe deeper in every moment.
Months passed and my scans began to improve. My body was slowly healing. And alongside that physical shift I was learning that healing is not only a medical outcome. It is not only a scan result or a tumor marker. Healing can look like hope and purpose returning quietly after a long absence.
Living in the in-between
So I have now arrived at the best possible conclusion for a person with Stage IV cancer – Stable. Medically it means cancer is on hold, not progressing. I have arrived at an in-between space, where life continues — fully, beautifully, imperfectly.
Alongside appointments, scans, blood draws, there is morning light and a love that feels deeper than it once did. Each day becomes something I step into more intentionally. There is a kind of sacredness that emerges in ordinary moments. The quiet truth that life is not guaranteed does not disappear. I simply keep going. I am at peace firmly rooted in the present moment. Life is beautiful from this space.
A Foundation – A Network of Love
Aspen Angels Foundation was born as an offering from this space.
A way to take something deeply personal — the fear, the grace, the unexpected beauty of being carried by love during the hardest season of my life — and extend it outward into the world.
As I sit each day packing angels and praying for those who will hold them, I am truly humbled by this work. To me, it is sacred work. In these moments, I have found the deepest peace.
If a small angel can help someone feel even slightly more supported in a difficult moment, then it has done something meaningful.
This foundation is my act of devotion to every person who has ever sat in or beside a hospital bed and felt helpless and alone. To everyone who needs a reminder — small, simple, and held in the palm of the hand — that love is near.
You are not alone. You are held and I’d love to send you an angel.
From Aspen, with love,
Christine
About Aspen Angels Foundation
Aspen Angels Foundation is a registered 501(c)(3) nonprofit, EIN 41-2429286. Founded in 2025 by Christine McGuan, after a stage IV lung cancer diagnosis, our mission is to place one million hand-carved crystal angels into the hands of people who need them.
From Aspen roots, love travels far.