Woman dubbed ‘Florida’s Snow White’ after falling into coma for 42 years
Amelia Jones
Featured Image Credit: Sipa US / UtCon Collection / Alamy Stock Photo
A woman who lived in a coma for 42 years and nicknamed 'Florida's sleeping Snow White' died on Wednesday.
59-year-old Edwarda O’Bara was only 16 years old and a mild diabetic when she became sick with pneumonia and slipped into a diabetic coma in 1970.
According to the Miami Herald, just before losing consciousness, she asked her mother, Kaye, to never leave her side.
Her mum replied: "Of course not, I would never leave you, darling, I promise. And a promise is a promise!"
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And her family never did, meticulously caring for Edwarda day in, day out over the years at the Florida home.
Her parents read to her, played music, made sure she was turned every two hours, bathed her, gave her insulin and tube fed her — until their 1976 and 2008 deaths, respectively.
Then her sister, Colleen, took over.
Edwarda's story inspired the 2001 book: 'A Promise Is A Promise: An Almost Unbelievable Story of a Mother’s Unconditional Love and What It Can Teach Us' and a song called 'My Blessed Child.'
People from around the world traveled to the 'real life Snow White's' home.
Miami Herald columnist, Charles Whited, reported in 1983 that she woke up and said: "Hey" two nights in a row. But she never spoke again.
Her sister told the Herald: "She taught me so much, and I’m talking about now, after she was in the coma. "She taught me so much about unconditional love that I couldn’t say I had it before. She taught me about patience that I didn’t have before."
The news of Edwarda's passing was posted on a website dedicated to her on Thursday by Edwarda's sister.
She wrote: "Yesterday while taking care of Edwarda I noticed her looking directly at me and gave me the biggest smile I had ever seen.
"She then closed her eyes and joined my Mom in Heaven."
A Reddit thread discussing her life paid tribute to her and her family.
Another said: "I can't imagine how hard it is to hold onto that hope for so long and it to not mean anything in the end. People have been crushed by so much less.
"Nothing but sympathy for a mother who never stopped loving her daughter."
Others went into the ethics of keeping somebody alive in a coma for that long: "If a loved one is in a coma for over 10 years, it's time to say goodbye."
One simply commented: "That poor family."