LA GRANGE, Ky. — There's a woman in Oldham County known for the angels she handcrafts and hands out to anyone she sees doing a good deed or needing comfort. Millie Stephens doesn't leave the house without them.
A bead, a set of wings and some wire. In all, there are about eight parts she strings together to make these angels no bigger than your thumb. They're all Stephens needs to inspire hope.
Since 2006, she's made more than 12,000 of them.
"I buy the wings, about a thousand to 1,500 a year," Stephens said.
She walks into her bedroom and pulls out a drawer of her own collection, close to 150 of them.
"Those are her personal favorites," her daughter Sharon Hechinger said, laughing at her mom.
"I made myself keep just that many because that's foolish," Stephen said. "You can't wear that many."
The rest she gives away.
"I usually have angels in all my pockets, that way, I can give it to somebody fast," Stephens said. "Mainly just to make someone feel good about themself, kind of brighten their day a little bit."
Stephens' angels have traveled around the world, from nurses in New York during COVID, to soldiers in Iraq and the gravesite of her husband in Arlington.
"We feel like it was a gift for mom," Hechinger said. "She started handing them out more when my dad passed away and he was her world. I think when your heart is heavy and you can do something for someone, it lightens the load you're carrying when you can brighten someone else's day."
"When I get down, I get out," Stephens said. "I went up to Walmart and gave away three angels. And this one woman said, you don't know what this means to me, I was having a bad day, and I said, you don't know what this means to me, I was having a bad day."
These days, it's hard to go anywhere the Angel Lady hasn't left her mark.
"You kind of feel like my Mom's a celebrity," Hechinger smiled.
"People want to hug you, they want to take a picture with you; they tell you their life story," Stephens said. "The angel was kind of a reminder that things would get better."
The angels can be found on the badges of staff at Stephens' local Cracker Barrel, pizza shop and the hospital just down the road.
"I've seen a bunch of people wearing them," Noralee Moock, a volunteer at Baptist Health LaGrange, said. "Sometimes, you get a little, things going on and I put my hands to it and say, help me, and it does."
"I give them away freely, but when I have to have blood drawn, I always tell them if they get it the first time, I'll give them an angel," Stephens said.
It's a moment of shared joy, many hold close to their heart years later.
"When I met Millie, she gave me an angel and I wore it on my badge and I had a patient who was very sick and every day he would tell me how much he liked it," Cheyenne Brewer, a nurse at Baptist Health LaGrange, said. "I gave him my angel and him and his wife both cried. And I told a relative of Millie's I needed a new one so they made me one and I'm keeping it."
Brewer said she's not giving this one away.
"She's passing out love and God's grace and healing them and giving them hope," Brewer said. "It makes them smile. Everyone who sees it smiles."
"I went to the doc one day and they all had them on their badges and I gave this one woman one and she said, Oh my goodness I feel like I'm part of the team now. I got an angel," Stephens said.
Make it easy to keep up-to-date with more stories like this. Download the WHAS11 News app now. For Apple or Android users.
Have a news tip? Email assign@whas11.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter feed.