By Jim Jerome
LHJ contributing editor Jim Jerome recently met with Roma Downey, the thirty-four-year-old actress who stars as Monica in the popular TV series Touched by an Angel. At her English-style country home in Salt Lake City, Downey cuddled her eighteen-month-old daughter, Reilly Marie, and talked about growing up in Derry, in Northern Ireland, a country torn by "the Troubles" between Irish Republican and British Army forces.

"Derry was almost flattened," said Downey. "I have an extremely vivid memory of the library being bombed. I still recall the horror of seeing all the pages of those irreplaceable books floating away in the wind. What you take for granted here--like bowling, ice-skating--[was] gone, robbed."

But it's the loss of her parents that Downey feels most keenly. Her father, Patrick, died in 1985, the day before she was due home from London for a family celebration. She credits his influence with instilling in her "a strong sense of knowing right from wrong." Her mother, Maureen, died of a heart attack when the actress was just nine, leaving her with a deep sense of sorrow. "The woman I've become grew up around that hole and learned to live with that emptiness," she told Jerome. "But Reilly's arrival has filled that hole. I feel complete for the first time since I lost my mother. I never knew I could love so much."

Indeed, the baby girl has given Downey a sense of belonging and has changed her notion of "home for the holidays." Though she'll always remember childhood Christmases in Derry, this year Downey will attend husband David Anspaugh's Methodist church (they alternate with her Roman Catholic church) and spend Christmas at home. Like the TV angel she portrays, Downey believes in one God and that "a building is just a building, though they're killing each other in my homeland over this very subject. I don't feel it matters what banner you wave to honor the one God."

Read our entire interview with Roma Downey in the December issue of Ladies’ Home Journal, on newsstands now.

• Monica is assigned to watch over a young basketball player. To gain his respect, she performs this "miracle."

Audio Clips
When Roma Downey was interviewed by writer Jim Jerome, she revealed her personal feelings about what it's like to play an angel, to be a parent, and more. Click below to listen in on their conversation.
• Roma talks about her first time "ice skating"--on camera for the Christmas TV special, "Borrowed Hearts."

• Roma tells Jim what she really thinks of her role on "Touched by an Angel."

• On meeting her husband, David Anspaugh.

• Answering the question, "Do you think there's a danger of trivializing spirituality and religion with this show?"

(You will need the free RealMedia Plug-in to hear and view these files.)