Sometimes, life changes in a moment.

For us, that moment came last April while we were in Gulf Shores for my sister’s respiratory conference. What should have been an ordinary trip suddenly became one of the most frightening experiences of our lives.

My sister suffered a sudden cardiac arrest and was without a heartbeat for nearly four minutes before she was brought back. She spent seven days in the Surgical Intensive Care Unit, fighting her way through a critical illness.

I will never forget arriving to pick her up after the conference and seeing the ambulance and fire rescue truck. I didn’t even recognize my own sister when I saw her being taken away. Then came the phone call as the ambulance was leaving.

Everything changed that day.

But through those difficult days, something beautiful happened too. My sister and I became closer than ever.