The protagonist of our story is Anna Miller, a 35-year-old single mother and dedicated nurse whose life revolved around her only 8-year-old daughter, little Violet. Life for this lonely mother from New Orleans had never been easy since she discovered she was pregnant while in her second year of medical school. All her plans for the future disappeared, forcing her to give up everything to become a mother and give her baby a good life.
But as if having to give up her career was not enough, Anna experienced tragedy again when her marriage ended suddenly. Little Violet was only a year old when her husband Brian, whom she had been dating since high school, decided to leave them both without explanation and refused to take any responsibility for her and their daughter. She was left all alone with a child to care for and a myriad of responsibilities and mounting bills. Other mothers would have been devastated and would have been forced to ask for help from social and Family Services to get by, but Anna Miller was not like other mothers.
So when Violet turned two and started to become more independent, Anna decided to go back to school so she could get a better paying job and do something she really enjoyed. However, instead of going back to medical school to resume her medical career, she decided to enroll in the much easier and shorter nursing career, which would allow her to care for her daughter and start working in a hospital in less time. And that brings us to the present time in which our story takes place, where Anna has been working as a nurse in the hospital for more than 5 years and has managed to create a stable and loving home for herself and her beautiful daughter Violet, who is now 8 years old.
It was late on a Thursday, and Anna had just arrived home from working all day at the hospital. Anna came home with her shoulders heavy with fatigue; the day had been hard for the nurse. Although in reality, there wasn’t a day that wasn’t hard – being a nurse was a truly sacrificial job. When she got home, she only had the strength left to stretch out on the couch and kiss her daughter good night before she fell asleep.
“Ah, thank God, my couch, my beautiful comfortable couch,” he said, plopping down on it, which was now more like an oasis. Miller closed her eyes for a moment, trying to relax and put the challenging day behind her. However, her brief moment of tranquility was interrupted by the excited voice of her youngest daughter Violet, who ran to her.
“Mommy! Mommy, you’re here! Mommy!” The little girl jumped on top of her, filling the room with her infectious joy. The mother, exhausted as she was, turned around and hugged her little girl affectionately. Her embrace was like an injection of energy and love that made all the stress of the day disappear.
Then Louisa, Anna’s nanny and close friend, came after her and greeted her kindly. “I’m so glad you’re here, Anna. I’m going to call it a day. She was already in bed, but when she heard you come in, she ran after you. I couldn’t hold her, you know she can’t sleep unless she gets a good night hug.”
“It’s okay, Louisa, don’t worry. Thanks for everything. I’ll put her to bed again, won’t I, daughter?” said the nurse, smiling at her daughter. Then she picked up the little girl and took her straight to her room, while the nanny said goodbye and left the house.
On the way to the room, her mother started talking to her daughter about her day at the hospital. Violet loved the stories her mother told her about the people she cared for and the different illnesses she had to deal with at the hospital. It wasn’t the conversation of an 8-year-old, but Violet had grown up listening to her mother’s nursing stories, and to her, they were as exciting as any children’s story full of magic.
“How was your day, my love?” Anna asked her daughter as she put her to bed. The little girl, settling in, replied enthusiastically, “That was great, Mom! I learned about the human body at school today. When I grow up, I want to be a doctor like you!” The woman smiled tenderly and kissed her daughter’s forehead.
“That’s wonderful, honey, but I’m a nurse, not a doctor. Still, both nurses and doctors take care of people and help them heal. That’s no problem, Mom. Someday I want to be just like you,” Violet said with determination in her bright little eyes.
Miller laughed softly and stroked her daughter’s cheek when suddenly she sensed something was wrong – something very bad was going to happen to this brave mother, an unexpected and tragic event that would completely change her life and that of her little girl, something that no one could have seen coming and that will leave you speechless.
Anna began to feel very ill – she was nauseous, her chest and throat ached, and she felt her body temperature rising very quickly. She had been feeling tired and had severe muscle aches all day, but she attributed it to lack of sleep and work at the hospital. However, what was happening to her was much more serious and had nothing to do with the overwork of a nurse.
She tried to conceal her discomfort in front of her daughter, who looked at her in fright at the change in her mother’s attitude, but she found it impossible to hide what was happening to her. Anna started coughing violently and was so dizzy that she was about to fall to the floor.
Seeing what was happening and fearing the worst, Miller acted instinctively and moved away from the girl to protect her – she didn’t want to infect her, but she also didn’t want to make her suffer by seeing her in that condition.
“No, no, don’t come near, honey, Mommy is sick. I think I caught the flu at the hospital,” she explained in a weak voice, coughing. The little girl’s face showed concern, and she asked, “What do you feel, Mommy? Can I help you?” The frightened child asked, looking at her mother who was on the verge of fainting.
“Mommy’s just a little dizzy, honey, my throat hurts. I don’t know. I’ll run some tests later to find out for sure, okay? But you have to stay there and sleep. If you don’t, you’ll get sick too, and you won’t be able to go to school. Do you understand me?” The woman knew how much her daughter loved school and that she would never want to stay home sick instead of going to see her classmates. Violet reluctantly agreed to stay in bed, worried about her mother, and obeyed her orders to go to bed and wait for her to return.
However, the next day, around 8:00 in the morning, when the girl got up and went down to the kitchen to have breakfast with her mother, as she did every day, she got a surprise – her mother was not there. Panicked and fearing the worst, Violet rushed to the bedroom and found a heartbreaking scene – her mother was lying in bed, looking horrible. She had a high fever and was shivering. The girl was very frightened, but her mother helped her get a thermometer from the bedside table to take her temperature and check her condition. But the thermometer did not have good news for her – she had a fever of 107.
Anna needed to get to a hospital immediately – her life was in grave danger, and she knew it. “Honey, pick up the phone and call Louisa quick, she will help us,” she hastened to tell the girl. After receiving Violet’s call, it took Louisa only 15 minutes to arrive at the house to find her friend on the verge of death.
Louisa was alarmed to see her friend’s condition and tried to take care of her by following all the instructions the nurse gave her from the bed, but her health condition only worsened. At night, Anna still had a fever of over 40, coughed incessantly, and began to have hallucinations because of the pain and fever. Louisa became very frightened and decided not to wait any longer and called an ambulance to take her friend to the hospital for specialized care and to find out what was happening to her.
“Please, hurry up, my friend is dying,” she told the paramedics in a panic, as she realized that her friend was getting worse and had started coughing up blood. Upon admission to the hospital, the doctors discovered that the woman was suffering from severe pneumonia, and despite all efforts to treat her, her condition was getting progressively worse with each passing hour.
Violet was devastated and wept as she looked at her mother lying in the hospital bed surrounded by machines, but nothing could prepare her for the terrible blow she was about to face. Anna Miller, the strong and dedicated woman who worked tirelessly as a nurse to give her daughter the best life possible, could not resist the strange illness that suddenly came upon her. After spending several weeks ill and admitted to the hospital in the Intensive Care Unit, she passed away at only 8 years old.
Violet had been left without her mother, and her whole world fell apart. News of Anna’s death spread quickly through the hospital, leaving everyone in shock and despair. Co-workers, nurses, and doctors who knew and admired her gathered in groups, sharing tears and words of grief for Anna. No one understood how the situation had come to this point and how such a healthy and strong woman had lost her life so suddenly.
Despair also spread to the woman’s relatives who arrived at the hospital upon receiving the tragic news – her parents, relatives, and even her ex-husband and Violet’s father, who until then had remained distant from her and her daughter, showed up to pay their last respects and accompany the girl in such a sad moment.
“I’m so sorry, honey, your mom was a great woman, she loved you above all things, and I am sure that wherever she is, she will be taking care of you,” everyone was telling the little girl to try to comfort her. But Violet had her own opinion about her mother’s death, and although she understood perfectly well what it meant to go to live in heaven, she could not accept that her mother was gone forever and kept waiting for something to happen that would indicate that her mother was coming back to her side.
Louisa was in charge of organizing the funerals with the help of Anna’s family, and the next day everyone was gathered to say their last goodbye – a small ceremony full of symbolism and affection. The atmosphere was full of sadness and longing, and in the center of all this lamentation was Violet, the little girl who was crying next to her mother’s coffin and unable to contain her pain and confusion for having lost her mother in such a way.
“No, she’s not dead! She’s not dead!” The girl repeated as tears streamed down her face. Louisa tried to console her and took her to the back of the mortuary, away from the gazes of the others. There she hugged her and tried to find words of comfort for her darling.
“I know you feel very bad, but your mom is gone, and we must accept it,” Louisa told her lovingly, hugging the girl. But Violet was not willing to give in – the girl sobbed and shook her head in denial, unable to accept the terrible reality that was looming over her.
“No, no, Mom can’t be gone! I know she wouldn’t leave me, she wouldn’t leave me alone, she promised me, you can’t understand!” She cried disconsolately, with tears streaming down her face. After she calmed down a bit, the nanny took her back to the main room so she could say goodbye one last time to her mother, as the coffin would soon be taken away for burial in the family niche.
The little girl, standing in front of her mother, immediately had her mind flooded with memories and happy moments with her. She didn’t want her to go, but the moment the coffin lid closed and the little girl took one last look at her mother’s pale face, realizing she would never see her again, tears streamed down her little face as she cried as loud as she could.
“Mom, please don’t leave me!” Her voice was full of sadness and despair. But then something absolutely incredible happened that would leave them all speechless – the coffin began to shake. Almost imperceptibly at first, but soon it became more evident, and all the people around were stupefied and perplexed at what they were witnessing.
The lid of the coffin, which had been closed so carefully, began to move slowly as if someone was trying to open it from the inside. The family and friends were astonished – how was it possible that Anna’s coffin was moving? Louisa instinctively stepped back, and others standing by the coffin, ready to take it away for burial, also hesitated.
People’s minds began to wander in search of explanations, but in reality, they were all thinking the same thing – the only person capable of lifting the lid from the inside was the deceased Anna, who apparently was not as dead as they had thought.
Violet, with tears in her eyes, slowly approached the coffin. Her expression was full of curiosity and hope. She placed both hands on the coffin and bent down, bringing her ear close to the cold wood. It was then that she heard, in a faint, almost inaudible whisper, the voice of the person she loved most in the world.
“Get me out of here. I’m alive. Get me out of here, please, Violet, honey, Mommy is here!” The little girl jumped back, her eyes wide with astonishment. She cried out loud and clear, “My mother is alive! Get her out, get her out, she’s talking to me!”
The nanny, without hesitation, lifted the lid of the coffin to check, and indeed, there was Anna – her eyes open, confused, and struggling to breathe. Her hands were shaking, and her breathing was weak, but it was undeniable that she was alive.
Panic gripped everyone, but action was swiftly taken – Anna was rushed to the hospital where a team of doctors and nurses gathered to give her first aid and try to understand what had happened and answer the question everyone was asking at the time – how could a woman who had been presumed dead come back to life?
The news spread through the city like wildfire – journalists flocked to the hospital door eager to get information about the nurse who had been resuscitated. Louisa, as a loyal and protective friend of Anna and her daughter, tried to keep the curious and the press away, but the story was too big to keep secret, and the whole truth came out.
But what was the truth about Anna Miller’s non-death and her sudden fatal illness? You’ll find out soon enough. It turned out that Anna had contracted a strange disease while treating one of her patients, a condition commonly known as Lazarus Syndrome that makes those who suffer from it appear to be truly dead. What makes Lazarus Syndrome even more intriguing is its reversibility, thanks to which our protagonist thankfully came back to life just in time to avoid being mistakenly buried.
Although there are few studies and explanations about this condition, it can be reversed, but the process is not well known. Although science does not yet have definitive answers, what all the doctors were clear about is that little Violet and her insistence on not saying goodbye to her mother and trying to wake her up was what somehow brought her mother back to life, making her come out of the state of total unconsciousness she was in after her shocking near-death episode.
Miller returned home safe and sound, but with a story that seemed straight out of a fairy tale. The hospital recognized her dedication and rewarded her with a substantial pay raise, considering she had worked for years without any adjustment in her salary. In addition, Anna also received a generous severance package for all those years of unadjusted work and the obvious physical and mental consequences it had caused her, allowing her to finally catch up on all the outstanding bills that had been piling up in her drawer for so long.
With the improvement of her financial situation, the woman was able to find some peace and relief from the stress that had haunted her for so long. In time, things gradually improved for her and her little girl, and life regained some semblance of balance and normalcy, and hope replaced the shadows of the past that had oppressed her for so many years.
And so, the extraordinary story of a simple nurse showed everyone that even in the darkest and most inexplicable moments, incredible things can happen – you just have to be willing to believe.
