ANNA MARIA ISLAND – At the age of 39, a Jacksonville, Fla. mother of two didn’t expect to ring in the new year at the Mayo Clinic undergoing surgery for a brain aneurysm, but Lauren Lewe says a picture of her two young daughters on an Anna Maria Island beach helped her get through the ordeal.
Lewe began having worsening symptoms that continued to be misdiagnosed by doctors months before tests showed she had a 17mm unruptured brain aneurysm. She was admitted to the Mayo Clinic on Dec. 30, 2020 with surgery scheduled for the next day.
“When I was admitted to the hospital, my husband Jon went home to get some things for our stay,” she said. “Our oldest daughter, Finley, sent him back with a picture of her and her little sister Emery from our trip to Anna Maria Island in 2020. With pure innocence, she told him it would make me happy. That was an understatement. After seeing the picture, I remember thinking I just wanted to be able to go back there. Please, God, let me live, my family needs me.”
Lewe said the picture never left her bed the entire time, from the neuro floor to ICU and back to neuro.
“The picture brought me so much comfort and helped me get through some of the most terrifying moments of my life,” Lewe said. “The doctor that saved my life, Dr. David Miller at Mayo Clinic, asked about it, our vacations to Anna Maria Island and our girls. He told me I would be going back there this summer. He was calm and confident and I believed him. Well, he was right. We spent a week in paradise at the end of July. Words cannot describe how grateful I am for this life.”
Lewe said she began coming to the Island as a child and was excited to share the experiences with her children. The family made their first trip together in July 2018 and has been coming ever since, with no plans to stop the tradition. Lewe says a lot of the family’s favorite Island adventures involve food. Ice cream at Dips, morning golf cart rides to Ginny’s & Jane E’s for cinnamon rolls and The Donut Experiment are family favorites.
“AMI allows you to slow down, relax, enjoy quiet living and it brings out pure happiness in our entire family. It is truly a special and magical Island where memories are made. This visit may be the most special and one I’ll cherish forever because I wasn’t sure I would be here to experience it,” Lewe said.
Lewe continues to have a clean bill of health, and looks forward to many years of return visits to the place she calls “paradise.”
