It all began on March 18th,1995 at the San Francisco Super Bowl. Hundreds of millions of people were watching. There was so much pressure to perform. Jerry McCain, American born with Irish descent, was hands down the best wide receiver in the world. He was playing in his second super bowl with the San Francisco 49ers. Last time was an embarrassment for McCain. The final score was 68-14, a devastating loss for the 49ers. But this time, there’s hope. It’s the last chance for San Francisco to score. They were losing 44-40 just barely behind. A touchdown was all they needed to win them the game. McCain gets a great pass. There were just two defenders to beat. Jerry makes it past the first one, but then he loses his balance. As he finally gets his head up, he notices the next defender, fiercely sprinting towards him. But then, the collision. The defender’s shoulder into McCain's head. There was a gasp from the crowd, his head jolted backwards as the rest of his limp body hurled forward. He landed right on his neck, but by then he was already out cold by the time he hit the ground. The other players desperately waved for the medical staff to get on the field. They immediately brought him to the hospital, this would definitely be his last ever football game, and possible his last day ever.

While his frightened family sat outside the operating room, doctors did everything in their ability to save Jerry’s life. After an agonizing three hour wait, Maggie and Betty, Jerry's daughter and wife finally saw the doctor exit the operating room. “Jerry is in very critical condition. His brain is internally bleeding and we have put him into an induced coma until we get the bleeding and swelling under control. After the bleeding stops and the swelling goes down, we will try to wake him up but there is no guarantee that he will wake up. He may remain in a vegetative state for an uncertain amount of time. When he does wake up, he may have severe brain damage and will most likely never be the same,” the doctor explained with an empathetic voice. Maggie and Betty were heartbroken, as they knew their father would never be the same, but they were relieved that he would live.

4 years later

Jerry McCain is somehow, alive. He has been in a coma and on life support for an incredible 4 years. Maggie and Betty visited him every day, always hopeful. Maggie is now 12, tall for her age but skinny. She’s doing great in school, has mastered the piano, but she has been missing a chunk of her life, her father. But on March 20th, 1999, Maggie and Betty come visit him, just like every day for the past 4 excruciating years. Betty opens the door to room 307, to the most astonishing sight in her life, her husband sitting up on the bed. The doctor sits beside him. She drops everything she has in her hands; her purse falls to the ground, the contents spilling out of it, her cup of coffee falls and creates a puddle around her. She runs to Jerry, hugs and squeezes him tightly, tears pouring out of her eyes like a waterfall. Maggie joins her mother and father, in a big group hug filled with love and relief. Maggie and Betty relieved to finally see their father and husband. He finally speaks. Maggie and Betty anticipating his first words for the last four years, but with a dazed, confused face, he says “Who are you?”

Confusion filled the 3rd floor room in the University of California San Francisco Medical Center. The room with a man that was a close as there is to death, was brought to life by the sunlight shining through the windows and the well watered plants on the windowsill. Maggie and her mother glance at each other, then simultaneously burst into tears, now knowing that the man they knew as their husband and father is completely oblivious to who they even are. The broken apart family look towards the doctor for an explanation, “The blow to the head caused severe memory loss. Jerry will most likely remember everything from here on out, but he needs to be informed on his past.” The doctor stared at them with a sympathetic face. “But he should be ready to go home in a matter a days,” the doctor adds on. Jerry can now return to the life that he made for his wife and daughter with all his hard work playing football.

Maggie sits in her bedroom, just one of the 18 in her 8 million dollar house. She picked this room because of one specific thing, the beautiful wallpaper. The size of the room is miniature and cramped compared to the rest of the house but the wallpaper is exquisite and elegant, so much so, that Maggie chose this room for herself. On her narrow bed, she thinks about all the things she can tell her dad; all the good memories, playing football in the backyard, their trip to London, and all his characteristics that make him the best dad Maggie could ask for. She’ll tell him how he’s loving and family oriented. Downstairs in the living room, Betty sits on the overpriced, but comfortable couch making a video of all the pictures and memories of Jerry. She is excited about his return.

It’s been 5 days since Jerry woke up from his 4 year coma. Numerous nurses, doctors and even other patients looked at him in shock as they walked by his room. They've seen the same thing for the last 4 years, a man, lying on a bed, lifeless. Maggie and Betty enter the room for one last time as Jerry McCain is coming home. Maggie’s been preparing the house and watching movies to pass the time over the last five days until now. They have been waiting for this day for 4 years. Betty’s been working on the video to get her husband up to date on what's happened for the past nearly 34 years. Jerry gets up, and begins to walk out of the room he has called home for the past 4 years. Leaving the room, Jerry looks back at the doctor, gives him a nod and a thank you. He slowly walks out the door and down the hallway to the elevator. As he walks out the door of the hospital, he looks back to see the clerk at the front desk, her mouth wide open, like she'd seen a ghost. She last saw the man that is now leaving four years ago, in a stretcher out cold. She was on duty that day that Jerry was brought in. Jerry smiles and continues the walk to the car. They all get in and before they know it, they turn into their driveway. Jerry gasps, knowing this is his house, this mansion. “This is my house?” he says with a stutter. Betty looks at him and smiles. Jerry McCain is home.

He opens the grand doors, bigger than they would ever need to be, to see his home. The outcome of all his hard, work that he is completely unaware of. It’s7:00 PM, Betty got her maids to cook a huge meal for his homecoming, and they didn't disappoint. It was hard to not notice the banner when they entered the house saying, “Welcome Home Jerry McCain!”. The dinner was delightful; a huge roast turkey with stuffing, cranberries and all the fixings. It was as good, if not better than a royal feast for Queen Elizabeth, absolute perfection. At around 9:00 PM Jerry started the 5 hour video of what has happened in the world for the past 34 years that he has been alive. Jerry sat down on the couch he bought, which he has no recollection of. But when he sits down, the movie of his wedding switches to a movie Maggie was previously watching, the one with Liam Neeson, and on the screen, is a girl in her bed, who looks just like Maggie. But then, a group of men rush in, take her, put their hand over her mouth as she desperately tries to shriek for help. Betty quickly takes the remote and switches it back to the wedding video, “Oops, I think Maggie was watching that, you can finish the video, I'm heading to bed. Welcome home honey,” she says with a smile as she kisses him on the forehead, then walks out of the room. By that time it was 12:00 and as Jerry is watching his devastating loss in the super bowl before he got hit, he slowly drifts asleep.

Jerry is awoken by the sound of footsteps, whispering, and then a short shriek with a sudden stop. He instantly got to his feet and ran upstairs, surveyed the hallway, all the doors were open except the one to his immediate left, he blasts in, to find Maggie sleeping. He hears the footsteps again, but this time they are close and gradually getting louder. He wakes Maggie up, and before she can say a word, he whispers in her ear, “Whatever happens, don't say anything, I'll keep you safe baby ok?” in a panicky voice. Maggie, frightened and confused gives him a small nod. With the footsteps getting louder, he knows he has to get Maggie out of the house, he hears them walking right outside the door, it’s a man with a low voice saying, “It’s this room, get ready guys,” in a whisper, with no way out, with Maggie in his firm and hot hands, opens the window, looks down and jumps.

Luckily their 8 million dollar home has one of the biggest pools in San Francisco. They landed right in the pool. Jerry desperately made his way out of the pool, as he looked back, he saw the men, in balaclavas standing, watching him get away. The men immediately leave, Jerry knows they're coming for them, he needs to run. “What's happening?” Maggie asks her father as he's holding her in his arms, running swift and nimble through the woods. “It’s going to be okay, trust me,” he responds, not showing any signs of fatigue or shortness of breath. Finally, after a couple minutes of intense running, Jerry stops. He gently places Maggie down beside a fallen tree. Tears plummet to the ground from her eyes. Maggie was petrified with fear. She had been plucked from her bed by her own father, who was in a daze and taken away deep into the mountains behind their home. With her mind racing, she finally fell asleep.

Maggie wakes up to see her father sitting on a tree stump in front of her, smiling and obviously deprived of sleep. “ What's happening dad?” she says with a stutter. “Well, I heard footsteps last night, a group of men tried to kidnap you, in balaclavas, I got you out of the house in the nick of time,” he answers her in a calm voice. “Dad that sounds like the movie I was watching the other night!” Maggie said, surprised with herself that she thought of that instead of the fact that her dad just saved her life. “Where’s mom?” Maggie adds on. “I’m not sure, they were after you, I’m sure of that”

Meanwhile, at the house, Betty wakes up to the sound of her housekeeper knocking on her door. “Come in,” she answers. She enters the room with a worried look on her face, “Jerry and Maggie are gone, I searched the whole house, twice! The only thing I noticed was Maggie’s window, it was wide open”. Betty jumps out her bed, immediately calls the police, worrying for the safety of her family. Detective Steels was put on the case. He is an exceptional detective who always finds his man. He's as close as there is to Sherlock. He is of British descent with a strong accent and a sharp, exceptional mind. He shows up at Betty’s doorstep along with the doctor that took care of Jerry during the four years of his coma. They all sat at Betty’s kitchen table. Steels starts with, “Was there any unusual behavior the night of the disappearance?” “I didn't notice anything, he was watching a video I made for him to catch him up on everything while he was in a coma. But before that, right before I went to bed he sat on the remote and it switched to Maggie's movie, but that’s it!” Betty responds with obvious panic in her voice. The doctor asks, “What was the movie about?” It was about….” her voice trails off, “About what?” Steels says, anticipating her answer. “It was about a girl, around Maggie's age, getting… Kidnapped.” Betty answers gloomily. “Oh my God,” the doctor says in realization, “He's hallucinating!”

Deep in the mountains, Maggie sits with her father. Their clothes are still damp from their jump in the pool. “They'll be coming after us,” he says in a surprisingly calm voice, “We need to move,” he says in a hurry. This was something right out of a movie, these kinds of things don't happen every day. Jerry picks up his daughter, and begins running, Maggie begins worrying about her father's condition, he's incredibly fit, and can run nimble and fast for a long time, but not when he got out of a four year coma just under a week ago. After for what seemed to be a long time, he stops and delicately placed Maggie down on a flat, but wide rock. “Dad, are you ok? You've been running for miles now,” Maggie says, worried about her dad. “Yeah… I’m…” His voice trails off when he hears footsteps again, “We got to go, now!” He expeditiously picks her ups and begins running again. “Wait why? You only had a 2 minute break?” Maggie says in a whisper. “They're coming, they're coming, its okay, its all going to be okay,” he says assuringly. But then, without warning, Jerry gasps and falls to the ground, dropping Maggie.

Detective Steels rushes back to the police station after his visit with Betty. He calls for heat seeking helicopters, a platoon of officers and constables on the ground with dogs to sniff him out. Chances are he's alive, and so is Maggie, they can still be found. The helicopters take off and begin checking an 8 mile radius of the McCain estate. Little did Steels know, Jerry and Maggie were 11 miles away from their house. Somehow, the press found out about the massive search and it was on the front page of the newspaper worldwide. Some look at the positive; “Football phenomenon who has been in a coma for the past 4 years, is back!” and some at the negative; “Football star and his daughter gone missing!” Betty sits at home, one of her maids brings her the newspaper like she does every morning for the past 7 years. The front of it makes her gasp, “Jerry McCain is dead?” it says in a big black font. She picks up the phone and instantly calls Detective Steels, “How on earth did the newspaper find out about this?” she says in a frustrated tone. “I’m really not sure, just, come to the police station as soon as you can,” Steels says in a hurry, then hangs up. Betty's maid rushes into their enormous living room, “It’s the press, there’s hundreds of them outside the door.”Betty gets up and says, “I need to get to the police station, now.” She grabs her purse, sunglasses and walks out the door.

Maggie wakes up, in unbearable pain, her head is throbbing. She lifts her hand up to her head, which hurts the most. She gives it a gentle tap, and instantly pulls her hand away once she feels the sharp pain. She brings her hand back to the front of her body, her fingers are covered in blood. She slowly and painfully turns her head, her father is lying on the ground, his chest is just barely moving, he’s alive. It’s been almost a day now, the police have surely sent out a search party. But it may be hours or even days before their found. By that time, she may bleed out and she and her father may not live to tell the tale.

After being crowded by the press, Betty finally managed to get in her car and then to the police station. By the time she got there, helicopters were already finished the search and so were the men on the ground. Steels broke the news to Betty in the control room, with TV’s covering the walls, showing the live feed from the helicopters and the men on the ground. “The search party didn't…” without finishing his sentence, he's interrupted by a man’s voice on one of the TV’s “Look! to the left,” Betty and Steels both look to the screen, in relief, they both see a blur of pink through the trees. “That’s her! She was wearing pink pajamas! That’s Maggie!” But the next words said by the pilot are heartbreaking for Betty, “No sign of movement, blood around the girl, get a medevac here immediately!” Betty responds instantly, “No, no no no,” she falls to the ground in grief, tears spilling out of her eyes like a waterfall. Steels comforts her, “It’s okay, it’s all going to be okay.”

Maggie wakes up in a hospital bed, to the sight of her mother and the doctor talking, “She's suffered a minor head injury. She’s definitely going to be okay, but your husband..” He's cut off by Maggie who mumbles “Mom..” Betty rushes over to Maggie, gives her a hug of relief and happiness, “You're okay, you're okay!” she manages to say before breaking into tears again. “Where’s dad…” Maggie mummers, the doctor responds to her, “He’s in the operating room right now… he had a heart attack, since he didn't get immediate medical attention, it’s going to be hard to save his life, they're attempting a quadruple bypass, it will be tough.” Maggie and Betty now have to suffer the pain of waiting for something to happen, knowing there’s nothing they can do to change the outcome. They endured an excruciating 3 hours before the surgeon finally knocked on the door and called the doctor to talk outside the room. Maggie and Betty can't see or hear what they are saying out there, but when the doctor walks in with a sympathetic look on his face, Betty and Maggie knew what it meant. Just after a week of getting him back, Jerry McCain was gone.

Five weeks after their loss, Maggie and Betty stand in the rain, mournful and heartbroken watching Jerry’s coffin descend into his final resting place. The hole is filled back in with dirt, and the grave of Jerry McCain joins the others in the dark, gloomy cemetery in the bright, sunny city of San Francisco. Maggie has to live with the fact that her father died trying to save her from, nothing. Jerry McCain, wide receiver for the San Francisco 49ers, loving father and husband, the man who gave millions of dollars to charities, who miraculously survived an intensive blow to the head, is gone. Gone from Maggie's life, gone from Betty’s, but Jerry McCain will never be forgotten.