Shelli was 3,000 miles away when her scooter hit the pole. Experts recommended discontinuing life-support. The physician in me agreed, but something powerful told me she’d recover and have another child. “It felt as if she were telling me herself,” I wrote in my journal. 

I flew to Hawaii. When I saw her in the ICU, I wept. I leaned close and whispered, “Shelli, it’s Jeff O’Driscoll. I’m here.” To my amazement, she opened her eyes, but otherwise didn’t move. With her hand in mine, divine words flowed silently through my mind gently directed her to rise and walk! I couldn’t believe the message, but I couldn’t deny it.

With a tracheostomy and splints to minimize contractures, Shelli was flown home to Utah. Experts in the University neuro ICU concurred with their colleagues in Hawaii. The most optimistic scenario was a permanent vegetative state.

Shelli’s father asked me to bless her. No one had heard my thoughts in Hawaii, but now I was being asked to speak aloud with loved ones listening. I nervously placed my hands on her head and began to speak. Spirit promised Shelli she would walk, talk, and be healed. To me, it sounded unimaginable.

A physician told Shelli’s family, “What you get at one month is what you’ll have long-term.” That grim idea reverberated in my head as I awoke one month after the accident. At 4:05 in the afternoon, I received a text: “Shelli is awake and completely aware of her surroundings.” I cried. One month later, after two more medical miracles, she walked out of the hospital. A year later, she gave birth to her youngest son.

Shelli and I still refer to those days as her Summer of Miracles. When it seems there’s no hope, there is. When it seems impossible, it’s not. When Spirit speaks to your soul, believe.