No more skeptical about angels

I finished my first novel, and I read and edited it myself. Then I tried to check it with the help of a software called Grammarly. Grammarly almost crashed the mommet it started analyzing the text. She must have never seen such writing full of spelling, punctuation, and grammar errors. And of course tons of inappropriate words and phrases which, not Grammarly but only native English speakers can detect. I had to look for editors.

The internet is a place where editors live, one could say. There are millions of them. Freelances and professionals. from all walks of life, from every corner of the world. Before you google them, they google you out and offer you various options. Some serious and genuine, others fraudulent. The problem is how to tell which is which. A freelancer offers you $5-10 per hour and a professional $25-50 per hour.
A book editing serves came up with a range of choices, from proofreading $1150 to comprehensive Editing (in-depth Editing) $2300 and Regular Editing costs $1300, for a 96 000 words novel. Too attractive to be true. Regular Editing includes correcting grammar, spelling, punctuation, verb tenses, transitions, word phrasing, and clarity of writing.

Anyway, I went on searching and weighing until I got tired of all. One day, a thought struck me, the WDC.
'why don't I try there?' I said to myself.
Just a couple of enquires, I stumbled on the most admirable person I ever encountered in life.
She edited the first chapter, and I loved everything she did on it. The words and the phrases she replaced, the corrections she put made my writing look like it was written by a native.
I was satisfied and dared to ask her if she could work on the entire novel.
She said, possibly.
'How much?' I asked boldly, just like I did with the others. I still feel embarrassed by that approach.
When I didn't get her direct response, I stated my offer based on the costs I acquired from the Net. There I committed the worst mistake I would remember for many years to come.

She thanked me for my offer and wrote:
"I cannot accept money. I am financially very secure and it would cost me more in accounting costs and taxes than I would receive no matter how generous you were. I am happy to do this as long as you are okay with the results, and we can work together to accomplish the task. Please understand, I appreciate the offer, but in all honesty, being paid would not be worth the cost..."

I was devastated by this. I lost all the words to write back my appreciation and sense of gratitude. The only thing I can do for now is to recognize her as an exceptional person!

I was always skeptical about the existence of angels, but not anymore.