It began, as the story goes, on a random Wednesday.
A husband and wife, both born and raised in Waynesboro, got ready for work. They kissed one another goodbye and said they would see each other in the evening.
By the time the husband made it to his job – 30 miles from the house – there was already a message on his machine. Starting the day with a blinking phone seemed a little odd, but what he found was a real shock to his system.
His wife’s voice greeted him through tears and she told him, “I think I am having a stroke, I called my sister and she is on her way.”
Therein began a story that led high school sweethearts, Robin and Gary Florence, on a journey where they met truly good people, solidified their relationship and reminded themselves of their indisputable faith in God.
The date was August 3, 2022 and Robin experienced an overwhelmingly painful headache and knew something wasn’t right. After receiving the phone call from his wife, Gary immediately left work and headed for the Waynesboro Hospital.
Robin’s sister, Wendy, lives in Hagerstown, but works in Waynesboro. Sometimes Wendy will work from home – interestingly she was in Waynesboro that day. Also, when she’s in the office sometimes employees are required to have their phones off.
It just so happened she had her phone on that day and was able to answer exactly when Robin called.
Coincidence? You’ll learn as this story progresses that nothing here is coincidence.
The ER, an emergency and bad news
Robin works at the Waynesboro Hospital. When the ambulance drivers came to get her, they knew her. Her coworkers knew that she was coming to the ER.
By the time Gary arrived, he was met by his sister-in-law, Wendy, and Robin’s nurse, Sarah.
He recalled, “Robin’s nurse said Robin was getting a CT scan and we believe she’s having a brain bleed and a helicopter has been dispatched from York. We come to find out later that the ER doctor when he saw the scan, he made mention to the nurse, he said, this is bad. This is really bad.”
Dr. Fox was the ER doctor that day. He’s a traveling Emergency Room doctor and that was his first day in Waynesboro.
When Robin came back from the CT scan, she was clearly in a lot of pain. Moments after she came back to the room, she let out a blood-curdling scream and immediately fell into a coma.
Gary said, “Her nurse goes shooting past me and she makes this announcement, she said, ‘STAT respiratory, room 7.’ This is spoken over the intercom. Well, her coworkers know, uh oh, Robin’s in room 7 and there’s a STAT respiratory.”
Instantly, seven or eight people flooded the room and converged on Robin.
Gary remembered, “It caused me to be pushed back into the corner and the only thing I could think to do was stretch out my hand and just start praying out loud, you know letting the Holy Spirit lead me in a word of prayer. Everybody heard me praying for my wife.”
Shortly after that, the helicopter arrived and Robin was flown to York.
Wendy drove Gary to the hospital and en-route he received a phone call from the operating room in York Hospital. Staff told him Robin was in a fatal situation and the doctors were doing everything they could to keep her alive on the OR table.
They found that out while they still had 45 minutes before getting to York.
Gary said, “Something came over me and I say it was someone, it was the Holy Spirit, because something rose up inside of me, like this authority that I have never felt. Out loud I started praying. I said, ‘I command the spirit of death to leave that operating room now.’”
At the same time, the folks in the Waynesboro Hospital received word of how dire the situation was in York. Robin’s boss, Tyra Davis, gathered her coworkers together in a huddle and told them the doctors didn’t think Robin was going to survive.
Once Gary and Wendy arrived in York, they were told Robin had the best of the best. If anyone could keep her alive, this surgeon, Dr. Sorkin, could.
Gary said, “We just started making phone calls. I called my church and they immediately put it on Facebook, Robin needs prayers, she’s hanging on by a thread. I called my mother and she called her church and they put her on the prayer app. When all this was said and done, this girl was on so many prayer chains.”
Her sister had begun calling family members.
People were praying from all over the country, including Florida, Georgia and Texas.
“All of these people are praying,” Gary remembered. “Bombarding the gates of heaven on her behalf.”
Blessings
When the surgery was completed, Robin had survived. The surgeon explained for people in these kinds of situations, the severity chart is a one to five rating with five being the most severe. Robin was at the top of a five.
Gary recalled, “He said when somebody is presented at a five, one third of them will not make it to the hospital. They will die before they get to the hospital. He said one third will actually die on the operating table and he said the third who do live, a third of them will leave this hospital permanently disabled.”
Robin spent the next 42 days in hospitals, 23 of which were in the ICU. She was in and out of comas and off and on life support.
On November 7, she went back to work part time – and even drove herself there – and on December 1, Robin was back to full time work at the hospital.
When you ask yourself how and why, the answer comes back to the top-notch surgical team and the power of prayer and belief. There is no coincidence at work here. At all.
Going back to after the surgery, when Robin came out of the operating room in York she was on life support – she had IVs all over her body, and her head was shaved up the middle where a plastic tube was sticking out to drain blood.
Gary said, “I took one look at her and I turned to the wall and I just started weeping because I thought to myself, this isn’t my wife. This isn’t who just three or four hours ago I said goodbye. See you tonight. Love you.”
Another truly altruistic aspect of this was Gary’s place of business, Equipment Development CO in Frederick, MD.
He said, “Because they are so family-oriented, they allowed me 32 straight days off. I traveled to York and back every day so that she wouldn’t be by herself. It was an hour and 20 to an hour and 30 minute drive and they let me off every day to do that. They were in my corner the whole time.”
Gary went back-and-forth from Waynesboro to York every day and phone calls continued to come in from the hospital at any time of the day or night.
The day after the surgery, a member of the surgery team came into Robin’s room and said, “that lady should not be lying there. It was that bad. It truly is a miracle.”
The next few days, Robin seemed to be doing pretty well – she was actually alert and talking. By Saturday, the surgical team told Gary they were entering into a 14-day window that would ultimately tell the tale of what would happen.
Gary said, “I’m thinking to myself, actually it went in one ear and out the other because I was like she’s doing so well, she’s not even going to be here for three weeks. They said she would have to spend at least 21 days in the ICU and I’m thinking she’s not going to have to do that.”
More challenges
Tuesday on the morning drive to York, the phone calls began.
Robin would get severe spasms in the blood vessels in her brain and would need an immediate procedure to keep her from having a stroke.
The surgeons asked Gary if he would consent to the procedure and, of course, he said yes.
When he arrived at the hospital after the phone call, Robin said she was having double vision and the nurses told her that can happen with the medication.
A few days later while friends were visiting Robin, her heart rate spiked. It jumped to 110 and then to 130 – the bells and whistles on the machines starting going off and doctors couldn’t get the pulse to go down.
She had also developed pneumonia on top of all of this.
By Sunday, a week and a half after the initial event, the staff brought Gary into the conference room.
Gary noted, “It’s never good when they take you in the conference room. He said your wife has had a very, very bad night. Her heart rate had been constantly at 140. They had this breathing mechanism that was forcing air into her lungs. He said we’re going to do this for another hour or two, but we think we’re going to have to put her back on life support. That was a very, very tough day.”
Robin did have to go back on life support for the next six days.
Gary said, “That Monday, other than the surgery day, this is probably the second, maybe third worst day. I’m driving up, I get another phone call. She’s having another spasm. We have to go do this emergency procedure now. I’m like okay, okay, go, go.”
The doctor told Gary that Robin was having so much trouble breathing from the pneumonia she needed a chest tube to drain the liquid from her lungs – and that it was going to be painful.
They handed him the consent form to sign.
Gary said, “I’m like oh my gosh, I don’t even know if I wanted to sign this, but I had to do this.”
A cardiologist was called in to check her heart for damage.
Gary said, “That whole day just seemed like my back was up against the wall. It seemed like I was making decision after decision. So as I’m getting ready to leave, here comes the cart with the chest tube. I was like I cannot leave my wife by herself and have this done with it being so painful. So I stuck around. Thank God she doesn’t remember this because of the pain.”
On the ride home, Gary gets another phone call where he was told the doctors thought Robin was bleeding internally, but they didn’t know where. He was asked for consent for them to do a CT scan on her stomach.
Gary sighed, “I was at my wits’ end at that moment. So I pulled into a parking lot and I called my sister-in-law and I said Wendy if I have to make one more decision I don’t know what I’m going to do. She talked me off the ledge.”
Thankfully, on August 20, they took her off the breathing tube and she had started to breathe on her own.
Gary remembered, “I actually left that night with some positive feelings. Twenty after nine, I get another phone call and the physician says she is having another severe spasm. We have to go in immediately and do another procedure. Do you give us permission? I said to him sir, she just came off life support for the first time in six days. Will you have to put her back on?”
He was told the doctors would do their best not to have Robin put back on life support.
On Sunday, 18 days after the initial incident, the surgeon who had just performed the procedure told Gary the situation was still very much life-and-death.
Gary said, “I felt like I got punched in the gut when he said that. He said most people we’re only dealing with a head trauma, but with your wife, it’s not only the head. We just can’t keep her heart rate down. But we haven’t given up on her yet. I was like oh my goodness, that’s my wife you’re talking about.”
Robin’s blood pressure was also too low. It needed to be higher so it would expand the blood vessels in her brain.
Keep in mind, she was still suffering with pneumonia.
Finding faith
In the hospital that day, a member of the surgery team was manipulating Robin’s arm, moving it all around while Gary watched. Her arm continued to flop onto the bed.
Gary remembered, “The nurse came up to me and put her arm on my shoulder and said I’m sorry to inform you, but your wife’s right side has been compromised and as bad as it is, she will never gain full strength or mobility on her right side and we just want to prepare you for that. I said ma’am, I believe in the power of prayer and the nurse said I do, too.”
The nurse moved to one side of Robin and Gary was on the other side and the two began to pray.
When Gary pulled into his driveway that night, he heard as close to an audible voice as he had ever experienced.
He recalled, “In my spirit, it was so loud. It said ‘whose voice are you going to believe? Are you going to believe man’s voice or are you going to believe my voice?’ I just started sobbing and weeping and crying and I said I choose to believe Your report.”
The next day at the hospital, Robin was actually blinking. She couldn’t speak because when the tube had been removed, her vocal chords had been damaged, but she could blink and whisper a little bit.
Gary said, “The same doctor comes in again and he said to me, ‘How do you think your wife looks today?’ I said, ‘She looks a lot better than she did 24 hours ago.’ He said, ‘You know what, I think so, too.’”
Practically as soon as the doctor had finished his statement, Robin lifted her right arm up over her head, at which point the doctor said, “Okay, now she’s just showing off.”
Today, Robin has full mobility, full strength in her entire right side. She is not compromised at all on her right side.
The couple said, in unison, “But God.”
Gary explained, “That’s our new saying now is ‘but, God.’”
After showing she could move her right arm, the nurse came in and explained that the next 24 to 48 hours would be like climbing up a hill. She said if Robin can get through the next two days, it’s possible she might start coming down the other side of that mountain.
Gary said, “Sure enough within 24 to 48 hours, Robin finally turned the corner. We could never get her to turn this corner. It seemed like every time she would take a step forward, she would take two or three steps back.”
In fact, 24 hours after that, she was moved to Step Down in York Hospital, where she spent nine days and from there she went to Chambersburg Hospital in the rehab department.
From there, she got back home where she continued her rehab at Waynesboro Outpatient Therapy where she quickly got her strength back.
Gary said, “There’s a lady that goes to our church. She just recently retired from the ICU. She spent 18 years dealing with brain trauma. She came up to us and said, ‘I can count on one hand how many people have survived what Robin survived, but I have never, ever heard of anybody recovering that fast and then going back to work that quick. It’s unheard of.’ And we just say, but God.”
Gaining strength
Robin’s attitude during the entire experience was so positive.
Gary said, “I am so proud of her. She did not bellyache. She did not woe is me. She did not say why God? Why did you allow this to happen? Her faith became more resolved. I literally watched with my own eyes my wife go from death to life and now I am watching her go to life more abundant. It’s just incredible.”
One day, in the midst of all of this, Gary recalled a moment when Robin was in a semi-comatose state and he was holding her hand.
He said, “This is going to sound weird, but I felt a physical, tangible love for my wife. It started at the top of my head. I started weeping holding her hand. All I can explain is the picture I got was when the Grinch it said his heart grew 10 times bigger that day. I’ve always loved my wife, but my love, my admiration, my respect, my honor for her grew. I am honored to be her husband.”
When Robin came home, so many people helped the couple.
Gary said, “There was a local construction company in Chambersburg, Myers and Son, and because she had trouble walking up and down the steps, they came and installed a hand-rail for her so she could walk up and down the steps. People would come and just sit with her. They said we just feel like the Lord wants us to be part of this blessing that he’s pouring out on you two.”
The Florences also have a Golden Retriever and their sweet neighbors, Larry and Darlene Sease helped with Bailey, along with their dog sitter, Monique. Monique actually brought Bailey up to Chambersburg to see Robin.
Robin, who speaks with a clear voice and a whole lot of conviction, remembered, “Everybody has just been so great. Our neighbor, Larry, dragged his water hose over all of August, the hottest month, every day, because he didn’t want my flowers to die. He did that and he took care of my dog. He’s 84 years old. Nobody could ever take what God has given me in this situation. When you think of everything that had to happen in perfect timing.”
Aneurisms are all about time. Every, single second counts and can be the difference between life and death.
Robin said, “The doctors and nurses said it was so bad I really shouldn’t be here. Dr. Sorkin said it is very rare that I get to sit across from somebody that was a Level 5 and get to actually converse with them. He said every now and then we get a miraculous intervention and you’re it. He said we get very, very, very few of them.”
Gary added, “I think that really hit home that day when we went to see him. He showed us the before and after scans and naturally and statistically speaking, she should not be here.”
Counting blessings
The mortality rate at a Level 5 is off the charts.
Dr. Sorkin told the couple that he had witnessed so much death on his OR table when brain trauma is at that level. He noted that every now and then he sees a miraculous intervention like Robin’s.
Gary said, “And Robin’s response back to him was, ‘well I serve a big God.’ And his response back to her was, ‘Yes you do.’”
At the end of April because of the severity of the aneurism, Dr. Sorkin wanted to perform another procedure to check how the blood was flowing in her brain.
It could not have gone any better.
Dr. Sorkin said there are no signs of an aneurism. It is totally gone and the blood is flowing exactly how it is supposed to flow. Robin is now off all medications.
Gary said, “I can’t tell you how many times I look at my wife and all I can say is wow.”
In fact, one of the first days she came home from the hospital, Robin just felt like she couldn’t sleep in a bed anymore because of being in one for 42 days. She decided she wanted to sleep on the couch in the living room.
Gary said, “I’m like I can’t let you sleep by yourself. So I laid here on the floor. For three weeks, I laid on the floor with an air mattress.”
Because of the double vision, it caused one of her eyes to droop a little. Only those who are incredibly familiar with her could see it.
During that first night on the couch, Robin was sleeping with her face against the back of the couch and when Gary reached out to check on her, she got startled and turned around.
Gary remembered, “Her head is shaved up the middle, her eye is off just a little bit. I just started crying and I said, ‘You are so beautiful. You’re just so beautiful.’ She’s like, ‘No, I’m not.’ I’m like, ‘No, you are so beautiful.’ Our hearts desire is we want more and more people to hear about this story and to know that we serve a God who is a supernatural, miraculous intervening God. That’s our desire. We don’t want people to say wow, look at those two. No, we want people to look at God and say, wow, look what God did.”
Dr. Sorkin told the couple that the aneurism was likely something that Robin was born with and she had it all her life. It just ruptured at that point at that time on that day.
Her siblings also had CT scans to make sure they didn’t have something similar.
Robin remembers nothing from the first 28 days. The surgeon said that is normal in these kind of situations. So all the people who spoke with her while she was in the hospital – she remembers none of it.
In fact, her brother, Scott, came in from California for a few days, but she has no memory of seeing him.
She even texted Gary on occasion from the hospital.
But she cannot remember that.
Robin said, “I got great care. If I wouldn’t have gotten that, I would not be here. I know that.”
In fact, she wanted to visit the ICU nurses because she had no memory of them.
“They took such good care of her,” Gary said. “They met her physical needs, but I tell you what, they were meeting my emotional needs because they would let me cry on their shoulder and everything.”
The couple did go back up to York recently just for a visit.
Robin said, “That was one of the best days. I got to actually say thank you for helping to save my life. They were so sweet.”
Gary added, “They were so gracious because they’re like this is why we do what we do.”
“But God”
All throughout this journey, visitors and nurses would pray with Gary and pray over Robin.
“I did not sit at my wife’s bedside begging, pleading, making deals with God,” Gary said. “I sat as a son co-laboring, partnering with my Father, calling those things that be not as if they were, day after day.”
As the couple would say, but God.
Gary said, “Everyone had to be in the right place in the right time. Everything had to go just according to the plan or Robin would not be sitting here. God was dotting I’s, crossing T’s weeks, months, even years because he knew August 3, 2022 was going to happen and that his daughter would be lying suspended between life and death, but He had it all figured out. How He was having people exactly where they needed to be at that moment, it couldn’t have been anything but a ‘but, God’ moment.”
One of the keys when experiencing this kind of event is gratitude.
Robin said, “I have no idea why I’m here. I don’t know why He would have chosen me. I don’t know any of that. I just know that this world is crazy and know that people are going through a lot of things that we will never understand or see and I just want them to know that they’re never alone. Never alone. God doesn’t leave anybody alone. Nobody can take what happened to me away from me. I know what my God did for me and I thank Him every day, all day. I am just so grateful to be here and I’m going to do the best I can. I want to do everything I can to reach people and make their lives a little bit easier just in knowing that there is a God and that He is who He says He is. He still does miracles. He always has. People are hurting and this world is just off the cliff. People just need God. They need ‘but God’ moments.”
The Florences celebrated their 40th wedding anniversary in April 2022. They both turned 60 that same year, too.
Gary said, “I tell people in the same breath Robin’s experience, it was the worst time of my life, but it was also the best time of my life. You can never take away what I saw. You can never say it didn’t happen because I watched it happen. Now my faith has just exploded and it has soared because what happened to Robin is for who so ever will come and drink of the well of healing. It is available.”
Unconditional love is not easy to be found, but it will get you through just about any situation life hands you. Gary and Robin are living proof of this.
The couple welcomes the chance to talk to anyone about their situation. Hearing the story from their own words, the tone of their voices, their unwavering belief allows a person the chance to truly experience the “but God” moment.
Gary’s email is [email protected]. He welcomes any correspondence.
In fact, the 700 Club is going to interview the Florences in June about their story, so it’s about to reach a national audience.
Robin, the woman who according to the doctors shouldn’t even be here, summed it up simply: “Every day is a gift. Now I really see that. Until you go through something like that I guess maybe it’s tough to see. It’s just I know that every day I have is a gift and I just have to do the best I can with it.”
“I am so in love with this lady,” Gary sighed.
“He was amazing,” Robin smiled. “Most husbands would not do what he did.”
Gary said, “We were like glue glue before, but now we’re like super glue. We carry on with one another. We kid around with one another. I love just being with her.”
So for those moments in life when you’re down and you think there’s nothing good in the world and you don’t know how to keep going, remember the Florences and their story.
Because the Divine is here, among us. It’s in Gary and Robin and it’s in YOU, too.
That feeling in your chest right now after reading these words? That’s God’s light. Remember it. Hold onto it.
That is how you can pay tribute to Gary and Robin Florence and be part of their story and their legacy in this time.
And by sharing the experience, we all might just be able to make the world a little bit better than how we found it.
