‘What a blessing’: An emotional Mother’s Day reunion for mom who woke up from a 5-year coma

When Jennifer Flewellen woke up from a five-year coma in August 2022, her son Daeton, who had prayed for her for years, was elated by the news. Last month, Daeton asked his mother if she could come to his church for Mother’s Day. This Mother’s Day was Flewellen’s first at home with her children since waking up.

She agreed to go to church with her son, and to her astonishment, 20-year-old Daeton read an emotional poem he wrote about her in front of the congregation. 

“Though distance, time and life itself may take me far away, I’ll always be your child with these three words to say I love you,” the poem reads in part.

On September 25, 2017, after dropping her boys off at school, Flewellen was engaged in a horrifying single-car collision. Flewellen’s mother, Peggy Means, stood by her daughter, believing she would awaken from her coma despite the doctors’ grave prognosis over the years, and she did. Though she could just nod at the time, she has grown significantly stronger over time.

Flewellen attended her youngest son Julian’s high school football game last autumn. And she said yes when Daeton asked whether she and his grandmother would come to his church on Mother’s Day.

Means told People, “The preacher saw us there and said, ‘What a blessing. This lady we’ve been praying for is under the roof today’.” Means recalled that Daeton’s other grandmother also shared a special tribute to Flewellen.

“She told everyone she used to thank Jen every Mother’s Day for giving her her first grandson and how special she was and how strong I was to hang in there. But God was carrying us through it all.”

The family met at Mean’s house, where Flewellen’s eldest son, Skylar, 22, resides, after church. Means acknowledged the help of the community as well as the contributions made to the family’s GoFundMe. This helped them buy a van that helps them go on fun outings and shopping trips with the family and transports Flewellen to her regular therapy sessions and appointments. A recent procedure helped Flewellen’s hand’s tendon, which had been stiffened from years of inactivity, to relax.

Means added that Flewellen has even accepted that her boys are grown men and that her husband has moved on; in fact, she even has a granddaughter, Nyla Ann, Daeton’s 18-month-old daughter, who shares her middle name.

Her youngest son, an 18-year-old graduating senior, will attend Lake Erie College in the autumn to continue his football career. Means said the family plans to attend one of his games next year.

For now, though, Flewellen is soaking up every second her active boys can give her as she gets ready to spend her 42nd birthday with her family on May 19.