From the friendly caves of Pixie Hollow.

She was treated as a fatality, but she survived.

Jayne was in her early 20s. A stunning young woman with a cascade of shining, bouncing curly hair and perfect skin, she was in her final year of a psychology degree.

She had been up in the hills above Adelaide for a uni assignment.

But she was driving on a thirsty stretch of road.

Coming up to an intersection that was "notorious", Jayne failed to see the truck carrying a grader coming the other way.

It was travelling at 100 kph.

It t-boned her car.

Her mother, Helen, was concerned when Jayne wasn't home on time. That it was getting dark. And then when the doorbell rang and a uniformed officer stood in her doorway, she felt her life crumble.

Incredibly, Jayne didn't have a scratch on her. But she was unconscious.

For the following 12 weeks, Jayne remained unconscious.

Her family went through the agony of trying to decide whether to turn off her life support machinery. They decided to keep her alive, but the shadows of people who had been abandoned on life support, only to eek out their days in the darkened back rooms of the ward were not lost on them.

Helen, in her desperation, accosted the neurologist when Jayne was still elsewhere.

"Where are the books?" She demanded. "The stories of other people who have lived through this?"

The neurologist eyed her steadily.

"There aren't any," he replied. "Why don't you write one?"

This is why Helen documented her experiences, and Jayne's experiences, through coma and recovery.

When I met Helen and read her account, it was a journal. Her intention was to create a volume for family. For five years I helped Helen develop her manuscript into a book.

Then the book was picked up by a top tier independent publishing company.

Many years later, I gifted Jayne (who is still high dependency, but who, contrary to all expectations was able to write poetry) a CD with the bands and songs mentioned in her mother's book.

She loved it.

Helen, listening to Alice in Chains' Down in a Hole for the first time after this point, realised how much of her daughter's experience Jayne had mapped to songs like this. She realised how much of it had sailed past her at the time because she didn't know what Down In a Hole was.

Jayne had fiercely berated her mother during her recovery, lambasting her for being a "breeder" who wouldn't let her possession die, like all women.

She snarled one day:

"The Jayne you had is dead, and now you've got me."

The lyrics that Helen missed in those days? These:

Bury me softly in this womb
I give this part of me for you
Sand rains down and here I sit
Holding rare flowers
In a tomb, in bloom

Down in a hole and I don't know if I can be saved
See my heart I decorate it like a grave
You don't understand who they thought
I was supposed to be
Look at me now a man
Who won't let himself be

Down in a hole, feelin' so small
Down in a hole, losin' my soul
I'd like to fly, but my wings have been so denied.

The book, in case you'd like to read it, is titled A Flower Between the Cracks. The author, Helen Sage.

I'm telling you this story because it's just one of a number of volumes I've either developed or edited.

Editorial services begin at just $80/hour. They're a powerful way of underpinning your enthusiastic team with the type of professional support that creates consistency and sparkle.

Or, as Helen discovered, the opportunity for broader publication.

Xx Leticia "yes I cried every time I read the story" Mooney

Please let me know what I can do for you.

Leticia Mooney is a consultant with decades of experience writing with and for people like you. Her company Brutal Pixie casts the the kind of spells your customers love. It consults to businesses in content strategy, content writing, ghostwriting, content operations, communication strategy, audits, investigations, training and coaching. Leticia is also the mother of an intelligent, engaging, and curious boy, who is named after a character created by J.R.R Tolkien. You can learn more about her at https://biodagar.com/about, and her business at https://brutalpixie.com.

Leticia Mooney
PO Box 1190
Pasadena SA 5042
Australia
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