He Said, "Open Your Eyes" - Elena Wakes After NDE And 8.5 Years Catatonic

0:03 From the time that they pronounced me that was a good 45 minutes They cut my clothes and then they paddled my heart my heart stopped and I could see people screaming and crying But I didn't realize that was actually my physical body because I was somewhere else The only thing that I could feel if you can imagine Absolute love and peace there wasn't anything else to be felt. I was greeted by people I had known in the past I'm back home again. Incredibly safe and felt at home. I'd like to welcome to the show today. Wow, this is going to be fun and unusual. Ricky Joe Nyer and Elena Bendis. Good morning. How are you two? Good morning. Hi. Pretty good. Great.

0:52 Thank you for having us. Well, thank you for reaching out to the show and trusting us. to talk about this experience because I know it's not gonna be easy and it's gonna bring up some memories that might be a little tough. You know, sometimes I give our listeners a little bit of background at this point in the show as to what kind of an NDE are we gonna be talking about and this is gonna be an experience that you've never heard before and it's less about an NDE and more about, well, you'll just have to see. but take it from me, it's going to be super interesting and heartfelt. Wow, did I pump you up enough, guys? Yeah. Well, it certainly is an NDE, near -death experience. Yes. And there's so many definitions of near -death experiences. You know what, before we jump in, could you, Ricky, just give me a one minute sort of, without getting into the story yet, just tell us who you are. where you live, just a little bit about you. So we realize you're not some AI or something out there. Oh, sure. I'm as real as can be. My name is Ricky Jo Nyer and I live in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan, also known as the UP. My husband and I live in the woods. I am a wedding officiant and a classically trained singer. So I sing as the bride walks down the aisle and then I marry the couple, which has been really fun. And the

2:24 other part of my life is I have been a caregiver for my mother, Elena. She had a head injury eight and a half years, well nine years now, and I became her primary caregiver. So that's a very big part of my life. But yeah, I live up there and I'm now down in Illinois here with my mom. When did you move there? About five years ago. Sounds like a beautiful place. So Elena go ahead and explain why the sunglasses Well, I'm very sensitive to light and sound so normally Well, I think at one time I had headphones Because sound really affects me. Yeah. Well and Ricky is here to narrate the majority of the story, and I think we ought to just jump right into it. So, Ricky, take us back nine years ago. What was going on? How did the accident happen? Well, before nine years ago, my mom worked at her job as a decorator for the union for 19 and a half years. She was very physically active. She ziplined, kayaked. Any obstacle was fun challenges for her. She did hard math at her job and was able to figure out complex puzzles. And then one day, a steel truss hit her head. She was coming out

3:54 of a squat. She then went to the hospital, got staples, and was sent home the same day. And then after that, the sensitivity began. The confusion began. The memory loss began. And it just became a challenge. everything was overstimulating for her. Everything became debilitating. She couldn't leave the house. She started to overflow the bathtub, forget that it's running, lock herself out to go check the mail. Little things like that started showing us that she wasn't capable of living on her own. So then she moved in with my husband and I. The first four and a half years was really I would say the hardest time because we were looking for answers and all of the workman's comp doctors were not helpful. They couldn't pinpoint anything to the head injury considering she had so many symptoms. Fast forward to November in 2025, eight years, five months and eight days after the head injury, she became diagnosed with catatonia. And I'll tell you all about that story.

5:09 and how we figured that out. But when we figured it out, we saw that catatonia has 23 symptoms. And what we were experiencing was we were going to different doctors for each symptom. So all of the doctors were just so overwhelmed by her because everything was just so overwhelming. Didn't you say they said I was schizophrenic? Yes, yes. So in the beginning, in the first four and a half years, she became suicidal. She wanted to end her pain. And of course, I was explaining to the doctors, she doesn't want to take her life because she's depressed. She wants to end the pain is so much for her. She developed a movement disorder that was very violent. she would shake back and forth. You could hear her neck bones popping every time she shakes her head. Rigidness, her hand became so stiff she couldn't open her hand up. They had to surgically open her hand by cutting her hand open. So looking back, we can clearly see that it was obvious what she had. To summarize it, the DSM the diagnostics book that the doctors have to read was rewritten.

6:27 My mom's head injury was so close to when it was rewritten and all of her doctors had most likely read the DSM -IV. If you read the five, it's all pretty obvious in there. So anyway, where we're at now is we're able to have all these other doctors, they're going to use her case at the APA, the American Psychiatric Association in New York. And they're going to be studying my mom's case to help future doctors so that way they don't miss what eight and a half years of doctors missed. So that's the best thing that could happen. Because when we look back, it was obvious, it was all there, but no one knew what to look for. So if I could just ask for a little clarification here, it sounds like a traumatic brain injury that doctors just didn't really know how to diagnose. Is this a mental illness?

7:25 Is this a brain injury? You can't see everything in the brain on a scan, obviously, but at what point did she seem actually catatonic? You used the term catatonia. Which when I hear that, I picture in my mind, someone that's just sitting in is 100 % out of it. How was she compared to that? Exactly. And that's how I was able to figure it out. So in November of 2025, just recently, she was picked up by an ambulance because her help, I fall in, I can't get up alert, her life alert went off. And if you don't have one, get one. It saved her life. So she was in the hospital and she was gone. She was in a stupor, is what you described, a stupor where she couldn't...

8:16 Yeah, the static was there. You couldn't put it together. Her body couldn't tell her, I'm thirsty. I need a drink of water. So she was in the hospital and everything is pretty much failing. I said to the nurse, I said, I think my mom is catatonic. Because I recognize that stupor just as you said and she said no, she's definitely not catatonic She would be drooling and I said, oh, okay. Well, then I don't know what else it could be so, of course that night I went back to the house and you know just three long days of Being hopeless not having any answers and just watching her disappear her urine was the color of coffee like like nothing was working in her body the psychiatrist at the hospital the night shift psychiatrist calls me at 2 30 a .m. she says what do you think is happening here and I said I think my mom is catatonic she was quiet for a second she's like I was thinking the same thing she's but does your mom have a history of this and I said no I said but everything after her head injury is new and then I explained the head injury and I said that my mom had pneumonia a few weeks before this. And so I said, maybe the pneumonia activated or kicked it in or whatever, pushed it over the edge. So then of course I asked her, I said, could we get an EEG so we

9:47 could see a brain scan? She said, that's a good idea. Let's call the neurologist and get an order in. So the first thing I'm feeling was, wow, she didn't dismiss me. Eight and a half years of being dismissed, because nobody knows anything. And what do I know? I'm not a doctor. So the next morning, I go to the hospital and my mom is gone. She's completely gone. They are performing the EEG. The doctor has a camera on her. My sister and I are there. He asks us to talk to her. He says, ask her some questions, you know, so they can see the activity going on. We're like, hi, mom. Just asking her, do you know where you are?

10:28 Are you okay? And she's just... Gone. Lifeless, really. No life in her eyes. Then they come into the room and they inject Ativan into her arm. Lorazepam. It's called the challenge. The Ativan challenge, which we did not know anything of this before. So they inject her arm and she goes from this to Ricky and she calls on myself and my sister and she's... Life enters her eyes and she just becomes awake. It's all on camera. It was just the most amazing thing. After that, she was able to recite her name and her birthday for the first time in eight and a half years.

11:15 The next day, she read a fortune cookie. For the first time in eight and a half years, she was able to read. And then, another miracle, she was able to walk. unassisted without her walker for the first time in eight and a half years. And then she explains to me the dream that she had where God spoke to her and woke her up. I'm going to cry. Just, yeah, amazing stuff. I haven't heard of the Ativan challenge. Is that something that they try for people that are catatonic? Yeah, apparently for catatonia, you do the Ativan challenge. That is basically the number one thing that they can use to say this is catatonia because it had this effect.

12:04 The Ativan brought her back so they can easily say she was she was catatonic. That's the only way. Well, not really. That was the way that we knew of then. And then, of course, I went back to her psychiatrist, her current psychiatrist. And I explained to her what's going on. I told him what's going on in the hospital. And I told him of the Ativan challenge. And that's when he said, this sounds like catatonia. He says, we should do an evaluation. It's called the Bush -Francis Catatonia Rating Scale. I'll repeat that. The Bush -Francis Catatonia Rating Scale.

12:44 And it's basically an evaluation that they give her. And in that evaluation, they can determine if she is catatonic or not. And she was catatonic. And there's a lot more symptoms than just stupor, which most people are familiar with. Yes, because I could walk with a walker and talk, but talk different. Talk slow and talk different. It's not... that you don't move and you're just drooling. That's not the only symptom. They said that there are so many different symptoms of catatonia that people don't realize, doctors don't realize.

13:38 Yeah, so now they're going to be learning from her case, which is the most extraordinary thing of it all. It basically confirms that her pain and suffering won't go in vain. Other people are going to learn from this and potentially be spared. So the other craziness before we get to her dream, I have to tell you, for as long as I could remember before her injury, my mother was my best friend, my confidant. I would call her and I would say, hello, mother. And she would say, hello, daughter. And then when she had the injury, I would call her and I would say hello mother and she would say hi I would say that's not my mother eight and a half years I would still call her like that because it was just what I did and then she would just continue saying hi hi and she developed an accent she had an off -the -boat Italian accent for all that time we couldn't explain any of it and then when she came back to us She was now in the nursing home in the rehabilitation place and she's getting the therapies that she needs directly out of the hospital. She was in the hospital for probably about a week and then after that went into the rehab. So I called my mom and I just said, hello, mother. You know, eight and a half years later, she said, hello, daughter. As if she was never

15:10 gone. And so then I'm talking to her and she's bringing up these memories. And I said, what year do you think it is? And so where we're at now is that she has no recollection of the past eight and a half years. It was as if she was never even in her body. She doesn't remember the movement as bad as it was. She doesn't remember being in the nursing homes. She doesn't remember being in hospice or having home health for five years. Instead she looks in the mirror and she doesn't recognize the body that she's in. For eight and a half years she was never able to get teeth work done because she had to get put to sleep just to get an x -ray. She had to be put to sleep for every tiny little thing because her movement was so severe. It never stopped.

16:03 The suffering never stopped until now. And some days are better than others. She still suffers, but nowhere near as bad. And now she's happy. So before the first four and a half years, she became suicidal. In my opinion, I believe that brought her into the mental illness realm and... they saw depression, they saw anxiety, they saw paranoia. But if you are, if you were me and your head was flipping down and back as far as it could go and it would go so hard, the more it would happen, the harder your head would do that and your neck felt like it was just going to snap. Who wouldn't be depressed? Well sure.

16:58 I don't remember that but I saw the video you sent to me and that video Said it all to me Like who in the heck wouldn't want to kill themselves? Within the first four and a half years we were seeking answers and help any kind of help that we could have got but We we saw a neuropsychiatrist and she told us that this is psychiatric, that she just needs counseling. And of course I said, well, what about her movement disorder? She said she needs counseling. So then after four and a half years, we had to close the workman's comp case. We were not able to prove that it was head related, head injury related. And at that point we were really just trying to get her into a comfortable place. So at that time she was never able to leave the house anymore. She became too overwhelmed to go outside. So after that, then we started getting nurses and home health here at home for her and just helped her stay as comfortable as she could be and help her not seep into a deeper darkness. So really it was five years of trying to just keep her here. So we got her a dog, Pinky, teacup Yorkie. That and my niece and nephew, her grandchildren, I believe, kept her here. But she's here now to share the story.

18:25 Can I just say, Elena, you have an amazing daughter. Some kids would have kind of given up and thrown in the towel because it's really hard from the loved one's side too. So hats off, Ricky. That is not easy. Thank you. I do appreciate that. How long has she been back? So November 5th Will make one full year. So she's she's almost there a few months to go, but I appreciate that I would say my mother would do the same for me So I wrote a book recently and it's called do you believe in miracles our journey out of darkness and into the light? And I wrote this book for my mom so she could have these memories always and to enlighten people in the dark areas and for the caregivers how I survived and how I got through and for the people who want to give up and the people who love someone who want to give up. There's a little something in there for everyone, but ultimately if I would have given up on her and put her into a nursing home and left her there, she wouldn't have come back. If she would have given up, After all that time, she wouldn't have come back. Now I don't know if everyone gets a miracle, but I do know, how would you know if you don't keep trying, if you give up? Yeah.

19:50 After eight and a half long dark years. You don't know if there's an end to the tunnel. Is this going to go on forever or what? And that just, that makes it that much more difficult. Yeah. It was endless at the time. All right, you've mentioned the term dream. We've mentioned the term NDE. Let's jump into that now. So tell me what happened and whichever one of you would prefer to describe it. Well, I remember more things or different things than Ricky does because Ricky recorded this. But can you please look at my pictures and pull up some pictures of what I look like before. Oh yeah, I'm actually sharing that with him and he has the ability to see all of that. Oh great, great. And then for those that are watching the video version of the interview, if we can, we'll stick a couple of those pictures up here in the middle. Yeah, that'd be nice.

20:52 I had this dream that I was hearing thunder. It was the most loud thunder I've ever heard and it was just like boom boom boom boom boom and it was so loud and that's what woke me up not woke up that they can see but woke me up out of what I thought I was sleeping I heard him say, and his voice was so deep, the deepest voice that, I mean, imagine the deepest voice you've ever heard, but it's deeper than that.

21:38 It was hard to understand that's how deep his voice was. And he said, I am your father. And he said, listen to me and I will get you out of here. I alone can wake you up. I alone can help you. And I was just like, what the heck? I thought I was awake, but I wasn't awake. And I was just kind of like looking around like, is anybody else hearing this? But I couldn't see anything. It was like pitch black. It's not like I saw a light or something like that. I didn't see anything like that. It was just pitch black and it was thundering and it was like I was in the middle of the street and it was thunderstorming but there was no rain. He just said I am your Father. I am your Savior. And I alone can help you out. I knew it was God then. I just knew it. I said, I will follow you anywhere. I will listen to you whatever you want me to do. I will

23:09 listen. Wow, that's really good memory, Mom. It's pretty accurate. It's it's very It's very overwhelming Because um I said Either I said it or he said I'll take the wheel Or something like that or I said take the wheel and I will let you drive I don't remember All I know is he he was telling me open your eyes And I was afraid, not afraid that he was going to lead me in the wrong direction. I was just afraid.

23:54 It was kind of like I, like I knew that I was asleep in a sleep that I couldn't get out of. He said, open your eyes again. And then I opened my eyes. And then I saw my daughters. And I said, I can't say her name because she doesn't want her name added. She wants her privacy. My other sister. Right. She wants her privacy. But I said her name. And then I said, Ricky. They were like, Mom. And then I knew he brought me back. And Ricky was like, We thought you died, Mom. You were dying. And I said I did die. But he brought me back. It's okay. Take your time. This was not... This was not something that... I was...

25:02 I don't remember anything about my... About my head injury. I don't remember anything about that. When she came back to us, she mentioned, I just remember going to work and that was her last memory. I know that they were trying to force me to quit my job and they were doing some terrible things to me. Yeah, she received a lot of abuse from her coworkers at her job. Because they were trying to get me to quit my job. I just wanted to, I don't remember, get to something and then I was gonna quit. I don't remember what it was. Yeah, she was waiting to get her 20 -year pension. Her head injury happened five months before her 20 -year pension and then her job never honored it. It was really an awful time.

26:03 But I did record the entire dream that she had and she explained it all to me on video. I just thought it was too big to keep to myself. You know, I wanted to hold on to this. And the video is pretty accurate. Her memory was pretty accurate. Let me ask you this. Let me ask you kind of a hard question. Because some people take dreams really seriously. Other people don't. And you say dream and they're like... I mean, like a lot of my dreams are just silly. You know, they don't mean anything. This sounds like much more, much, much more than just something like that. What is the difference between this and just some regular old silly dream? You know what?

26:50 I actually asked her that when she came and told me all that. And she said, this wasn't a dream. This was a meeting. This was not a dream. This was something that really It's kind of like the only way I can explain it is Like we're talking right now Right. It was very real. That's the difference like last night. I had this dream That Ricky and Pinky left without me to go see my mom. That was a dream That's totally different So what name should we put on this? Ricky, have you thought about this? If we're not going to call this a dream, because your mom was just saying how real this was, what should we call an experience like this? I believe it was a meeting.

27:45 I believe it was divine. The one thing that she forgot to mention was when he said, give me the wheel and you'll be redeemed. And then she said, I'll give you the wheel and I'll follow you. And then he said, open your eyes. And she said, and then I opened my eyes and you guys were standing right there. She mentioned that part. What do you think it meant? Give me the wheel and then you'll be redeemed. I think that because I've never really been religious. I grew up as a Jehovah witness and I'm not bashing Jehovah witnesses.

28:28 But I grew up as a, I think as a kid because my sister told me that. And I didn't know she was my sister, but I believe my daughters and they're the ones that told me. Yes, and also she didn't want to raise her daughters us as Jehovah's Witness. I didn't want to raise them with any religion. Yeah, she wanted us to find our own faith and not be forced into it. Yeah, I hate to say that I didn't believe in God. I always believed that there was a higher power, but what was that higher power? I didn't have a name for it. I really didn't know. And I didn't follow a religion. I didn't go to any church.

29:22 I didn't do any of that. I just felt like you don't know who to believe. You know, you don't know who to believe now. And even I think, like my daughter just said, that I didn't force religion on I knew I didn't, huh? Right, but then when she came back to us, she walked for the first time without assistance. And then she gets back into her bed and before her one hand was not available, it was like a stroke -like symptoms. Half of her body was pretty much paralyzed. Yeah, but you could tell, I don't know if you could see it, but that's how clamped my hand was. It was like, I think like this. Yeah, it was shut.

30:14 Well, so what happened was when she came back to us after she walked for the first time, she gets back into her bed and she takes both of her hands and says, praise Jesus. And I said, praise Jesus. Mom, you know, she'd never said that before. And I was just like, what are you talking about? And that's when she goes to explain the dream. I don't really have a memory. So much of a memory of that I remember a few things but not everything but I'll tell you what's even more strange is Waking up. I don't know. I thought maybe I was sleeping or something I went to sleep looking one way and then when I was at the hospital I saw myself, but I didn't recognize myself.

31:12 I saw somebody in the mirror and I was like, you know, who in the heck is that? And then I did a double take and I touched my face and I realized that it was me. And I still have a very tough time. dealing with that. And I also have a tough time at times, sometimes, where I will yell at God and say, why did you wake me up now? Because the last president I remember was this guy named Obama. And they were telling me that's not the president. And I was just like, what?

32:04 She had a lot of catching up to do. Absolutely. A few weeks before she came back or a few months before she came back, I took her to go see her sister in hospice. My mom didn't know who she was. My mom didn't know who her own name was. She didn't know who her mother was. She didn't know who anyone was. She would say, I don't know that lady. So I took her to go and see her. And my mom took her by the hand and said, I'm really sorry this is happening to you. I'm sorry, I don't know who you are. And my aunt was very grateful that she was there. And she just was so overwhelmed with love that it was just the most beautiful and heartbreaking day. And then when my mom came back to us within a few days, I started realizing that she wasn't really there.

32:56 And she didn't remember any of the past eight and a half years. So I told her, I said, mom, your sister passed away. And that's when she just started wailing. And it was the worst having to relive it twice, but for her for the first time. So in my book, I asked her, I did an interview with her, because I wanted those memories real sharp. And I asked her, I said, if you want to tell your sister anything right now, what would it be? So she has that in there. I have an interview with her so you can hear exactly how it was right then and there. And then lastly, the Ativan that brought her back that medication, she turned out to be allergic to it. So with the doctor's, the doctor monitoring and the doctor's, you know, advice, he recommended maybe we can just try hydroxazine or even Benadryl to help with the allergy. However, with the hives and the rash that she got all over her body. She was very restless. She was not able to continue the Ativan.

34:01 And then shortly after that, she started relapsing really bad. So then the doctor recommended, he said, with catatonia, there's only two, really, there's only two known treatments, and that is benzodiazepine, which is Ativan, and ECT, which is electroconvulsive therapy. where they are basically simulating a seizure. Where they electrocute your brain. Yes. So at the time we were so desperate we tried another benzodiazepine, a Valium, and she was just relapsing so much even with that. So she started the ECT about six months ago and she's probably had about over 20 treatments since.

34:45 So now she's at the maintenance stage. where they give it to her about every three weeks. This is the longest she's gone without it. So they do put her to sleep for it, and if it wasn't for ACT, she wouldn't be here with us. So we have such a new respect for medication, because it's keeping her here, and for the treatment of ACT. Yeah. Sounds so barbaric. I mean, let's face it, when we think of... sorry to use the term asylums like a hundred years ago that's that's sort of what we think of the places that would abuse it yeah there's a controlled positive painless way to use it now and putting her to sleep then does that so yeah yeah putting me to sleep i'll tell you what I just had it done a couple days ago. Two days ago. I have to lay in bed and just sleep it off because my head and neck will hurt so bad. But I'll tell you what, if it wasn't for being put to sleep, I wouldn't do it. I couldn't do it because there's a documentary coming out. The fish don't mind if it rains because they're already wet. Where they were giving kids with autism and other problems and they were just giving them electric shocks

36:18 in their head without putting them to sleep. And I'll tell you what, I can't imagine, I know what it feels like. After? After being put to sleep. So I can't, I just can't imagine them ever, ever having to go through this. But there was this one doctor who said, if it didn't hurt, it wouldn't work. Well, I said that a doctor that's actually live, you hear him and see him speak. And I'll tell you what, that guy should go to jail. I believe that. Well, I got to tell you what some very exciting news is. Well, unfortunately, there isn't enough scientific research supporting catatonia. It's still so under researched. Right now, all they have is ECT and benzodiazepine.

37:15 Well, I think because so many doctors don't think that. I think so many doctors believe that you're schizophrenic and that's it. Sure. But what I'm getting at is in my book, I cited a doctor, Dr. Robert Boda, and he is out in California. He About 12 years ago, he treated a patient who had undiagnosed catatonia after a head injury and was brought back with the Ativan challenge. Same thing, almost parallel to my mother. So I, of course, put that article in my book and I reached out to him. I said, Hi, I just want you to know that I used your article. Thank you for the work that you do. And I just want you to know that my mom went through the same thing.

38:04 He responded the same day. He's the one who invited us to the APA conference in May. His residents are now gathering information and they're going to be the one studying her case. He told me that the patient that he treated now is currently working and is living his best life. He gets a treatment called TMS, transcranial magnetic stimulation. I've never heard of it. So I'm like, what is this? Can my mom get that? He said that he gets it once a year. So it's basically like a wand, almost like an ultrasound to put it on your head and it stimulates the brain. Well, what I'm getting at is that I pursued some research into this TMS. And of course, I can now see that it is very common here. They have it in all kinds of different places in Illinois. So now I have this doctor out in California. helping us get information regarding TMS, and that potentially my mom will be able to get that. Right now, you only get that if ECT doesn't work. And I'm like, well, why do we have to wait until then? you know, she could develop an allergy to anesthesia.

39:22 But I'm not, we could just have a backup plan. We don't want to lose her again. So right now we're pursuing more information, maybe a consult for TMS. Okay. Hey, before we run out of time, I just want to, I don't know, I want to come up with a wrap up for this whole thing. and we've talked about the medical staff, we've talked about the patients, we've talked about the caregivers and each of their different roles and all of them are difficult. With that in mind, Ricky, could you just give us an overall what is learned? What is the lesson from this that you can pass on to others? Yes, that's a great question. I would say for me at least, trust your instinct as a caregiver. You know more than what that doctor Who sees you knows. You know that person more than that person who sees them for 15 minutes a day. Advocate for them. Trust your instincts.

40:22 Do your research. And just believe in that. And in our case, it is don't give up. If we would have given up, we never would have got this. And that there's just still so much to learn. You know, get second opinion. Get a third opinion. Okay, after this whole thing happened, I asked Ricky, can I please talk to my mom? Can you please call my mom? Because Ricky and my other daughter were telling me that you have a mom and she loves you and misses you and wants to talk to you.

41:07 So I said, could you please call my mom? And Ricky said, mom, you have to let me call first because this could cause her to have a heart attack. It's very shocking. Because everybody was shocked that I came back. I want to say that when I was on the phone with my mom and even at home, I sing to God. I talked to God, talked to Pinky about God. I told my mom, please pray, mom. God is real. This is not something that I could say, oh yeah, some medicine made this happen, you know, like. Some miracle happened.

42:01 I'm not looking at it like that. I believe that God brought me back for a reason. I'm not sure what exactly it is. I'm still trying to figure that out, but I believe that he did bring me back. I know I heard him talking to me. I know that I heard that crazy loud thunder. It was, the thunder was so loud. We had tornadoes and thunderstorms here recently and that's how loud it was. So I just want to say that even when it seems like you're at, say you're taking care of someone. or someone else is taking care of someone. Even when it seems like it is the end, that's it. There's no hope. Always pray. Always pray. I pray every day, sometimes a bunch of times. Always believe that you've done your best to take care of the person that you love. Never give up on them. And I believe that They can hear you. I didn't hear my daughters, unfortunately, but I really believe that people can hear you.

43:27 That's pretty much what I wanted to say. That's really it's a big thing. And this is from not religious fanatics. OK. Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. That gives you more credibility to some people. Hey, Ricky, do you believe that God talked to your mom? 100%. And you know, I'll tell you, in my book, I have a letter to God. And in there, I pretty much apologize and give him the credit and let him know that he was there. But for eight and a half long, long years, when my mom was telling me that she wants to die and pursuing it, I would beg God, God, what are you waiting for? How can you let her suffer? But then when I call her and she says hi, And then I call her and she says, hello, daughter. It tells me that maybe she didn't suffer. And if she didn't, then there's a different kind of grace. There's a different kind of explanation and meaning that maybe I didn't know or it's really beautiful in a sense that she was potentially protected during those years. I'm thinking that maybe something bad was going on during that time that God didn't want me to see. But you know what? Look at the crazy stuff that's happening now. And that's

44:57 why I get angry at him and of course then I pray and I beg for his forgiveness because I can't say, why did you bring me back now? You know, because there's a purpose for everything Yeah, but I definitely believe it was divine and there's no doubt about it a couple months ago My mom was baptized for her first time in Christ's name Yes, it was really beautiful. All right, Ricky and Elena have a great road trip. Thank you say hi to mom and grandma and In fact get back to me Ricky and let me know how the reunion goes. I'm really curious Yeah. Take some pictures.

45:38 I think it's going to be a beautiful thing. Thank you so much for your time. Oh, I do too. Eric, you're great and thank you for everything you do. I know you're a caregiver too and you could relate to a lot of this. So thank you for everything. Thanks again for listening and sharing this podcast. Don't forget to hit the follow or subscribe button and sign up for our newsletter at roundtripdesk .com. If you want to share your near -death experience, or if you have questions or comments about the show, send an email to eric at roundtripdeath .com. Until then, I wish you everything good that you're looking for in this life and the next.