Good Heavens!

Hanging atop the bedroom doorway in Gloria and Don Hill's home is a carved wooden wall decoration that features a handful of angels and the words: "Angels Gather Here."

Indeed they do. And in force.

Throughout the Hills' cozy home, there are angels. Tiny angels and tall angels, smiling angels and solemn angels, angels made out of beads and wood and ceramics and even soap. There are angels on cookie jars, angels on dressers, angels hanging from cabinet handles and angels on throw pillows on the living room sofa.

Yeah, you could say that Gloria likes angels. She has been collecting angels -- and just about anything on which one can put an angel -- for 35 years now. But, oddly enough, her collection isn't a product of design, but chance.

Correct that: Given the heavenly nature of what we're talking about here, maybe it was more than chance.

In either case, it began in Atlantic City, during Gloria's waitressing days. One day, a steady customer who was starting a gift shop gave Gloria a "beautiful angel," she recalls, a 10-inch-or-so-tall begowned angel/music box that plays "O Come All Ye Faithful."

"I've always loved angels," Gloria says. "I've always been fascinated by angels. They're beautiful, and I just have that feeling I get from them. Every time somebody leaves, walking out the door, I always tell them, 'Call on your angels.' That's my favorite saying."

Yet, while she appreciated the gift, Gloria didn't feel any particular desire to amass her own earthbound contingent of the heavenly host. But, from then on, she says, "it just seemed that every time I turned around, somebody was giving me an angel, and I got quite a few."

Today, she estimates her collection at more than 500 pieces. Some are gifts. Some are angels she or husband Don bought themselves. Many are angels she has made herself, mostly in the form of ceramic figurines, crocheted figures and jewelry.

While many of the pieces have been displaced temporarily by holiday decorations, it's hard to find something hanging on the family Christmas tree that doesn't sport wings. And it's certainly no surprise that the couple each year sends out angel-themed Christmas cards designed by Gloria.

"I have some friends who have collected them all these years, and they make collages at Christmastime with them, which makes me feel good," she says.

If nothing else, Gloria's collection is a reminder of just how diverse the angelic world can be, from cookie jars, to a cutting board shaped like an angel, to the angel soap in the bathroom, to pieces of various sorts featured on a spiral staircase-shaped display rack.

Would that be a stairway to heaven? Gloria laughs politely at the lame joke.

In biblical tradition, angels are messengers who serve as bearers of heavenly news from God to man. For Gloria, each piece in her collection bears a memory.

Take her collection of Christmas-themed pieces, many of which were given to her by friends, family members and other loved ones. Every year, she says, "you bring them out at Christmastime and put them on the tree, and it makes me remember them all the more."

Here and there, you'll even come across figurines of angels playing the saxophone. Those are a tribute to Gloria's husband, who toured the world for decades as saxophonist for The Treniers and who still plays regularly.

The couple met in Atlantic City when Gloria caught one of Don's shows. They've been together for 34 years.

Don says he likes his wife's collection just fine, and even jokes -- and Gloria doesn't disagree -- that he's her No. 1 angel. Still, other family members can find the multitude of angels in the home occasionally disconcerting.

Take Gloria's youngest son, who came to town for a visit a few weeks ago. When he heard that Gloria would be showing her collection to visitors, he told her: "Mom, make sure you take him into that bathroom. Every time I went in there I felt all these angels watching me, and I felt self-conscious."

Contact reporter John Przybys at jprzybys@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0280.