into my comatose 17-year-old daughter\u2019s hospital room at exactly 3 p.m., held her hand for an hour, and left\u2014while I, her own mother, had no idea who he was or why he was there.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m Sarah, 42, American. My daughter Hannah is 17.<\/p>\n
Six months ago, a drunk driver ran a red light and hit her driver\u2019s side.<\/p>\n
She was coming home from her part-time job at the bookstore.<\/p>\n
Five minutes from our house.<\/p>\n
Now she\u2019s in room 223, in a coma, hooked up to more machines than I knew existed.<\/p>\n
I basically live there.<\/p>\n
I sleep in the recliner. I eat out of vending machines.<\/p>\n
I know which nurse gives the good blankets. (It\u2019s Jenna.)<\/p>\n
Time in the hospital isn\u2019t normal. It\u2019s just a clock on the wall and the sound of beeping.<\/p>\n
And every day at exactly 3:00 p.m., the same thing happens.<\/p>\n
The door opens.<\/p>\n
A huge man walks in.<\/p>\n
Gray beard.<\/p>\n
Leather vest. Boots. Tattoos.<\/p>\n
He nods at me, small and respectful, like he\u2019s afraid to take up space.<\/p>\n
Then he smiles at my unconscious kid.<\/p>\n
\u201cHey, Hannah,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s Mike.\u201d<\/p>\n
Nurse Jenna always lights up when she sees him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHey, Mike,\u201d she says. \u201cYou want coffee?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cSure, thanks,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n
Like this is totally normal.<\/p>\n
He sits next to Hannah, takes her hand in both of his, and stays for one hour.<\/p>\n
Sometimes he reads from a fantasy book.<\/p>\n
Sometimes he just talks in a low voice.<\/p>\n
\u201cToday sucked, kiddo,\u201d I heard once. \u201cBut I didn\u2019t drink.<\/p>\n
So there\u2019s that.\u201d<\/p>\n
At 4:00 on the dot, he puts her hand back on the blanket, stands up, nods at me, and leaves.<\/p>\n
Every. Single. Day.<\/p>\n
For months.<\/p>\n
At first, I let it slide.<\/p>\n
When your kid is in a coma, you don\u2019t turn down anything that looks like kindness.<\/p>\n
But after a while, I couldn\u2019t stand it.<\/p>\n
He wasn\u2019t family.<\/p>\n
He wasn\u2019t any of Hannah\u2019s friends\u2019 parents.<\/p>\n
Maddie and Emma had no idea who \u201cMike\u201d was. Her dad, Jason, didn\u2019t know him.<\/p>\n
Yet the nurses talked to him like he belonged there.<\/p>\n
One day I asked Jenna, \u201cWho is that guy?\u201d<\/p>\n
She hesitated.<\/p>\n
That didn\u2019t answer anything.<\/p>\n
I let it go for a bit, but it kept building.<\/p>\n
I\u2019m the one signing forms and sleeping in a chair.<\/p>\n
Some stranger is holding my kid\u2019s hand like it\u2019s his job.<\/p>\n
So one afternoon, after his usual 4:00 exit, I got up and followed him into the hallway.<\/p>\n
\u201cExcuse me,\u201d I said. \u201cMike?\u201d<\/p>\n
He turned.<\/p>\n
Up close, he was even bigger.<\/p>\n
Broad shoulders. Scarred knuckles. Tired eyes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
into my comatose 17-year-old daughter\u2019s hospital room at exactly 3 p.m., held her hand for an hour, and left\u2014while I, her own mother, had no idea who… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":34843,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-34842","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedailyglow.fun\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34842","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedailyglow.fun\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedailyglow.fun\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedailyglow.fun\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedailyglow.fun\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=34842"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thedailyglow.fun\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34842\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":34844,"href":"https:\/\/thedailyglow.fun\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/34842\/revisions\/34844"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedailyglow.fun\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/34843"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thedailyglow.fun\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=34842"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedailyglow.fun\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=34842"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thedailyglow.fun\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=34842"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}