What began as an ordinary moment inside a hospital quickly became an experience Daren says he will never forget.
Yesterday evening, after stepping off the ICU hallway, Daren was waiting for an elevator to head down to the first floor. As the doors opened and he stepped inside, a woman entered with him. While he was on the phone, she softly asked if his name was Daren.
He ended the call and answered her.
The woman explained she was trying to find Hunter. She had been told he was on “4J” but didn’t know where that was — and then she looked up and saw Daren standing there. Without hesitation, she reached out with money in her hand and asked if he would give it to Hunter for her.
Daren stood frozen for a moment, trying to place her face. She never asked his last name. She never said Hunter’s last name either — as if she already knew exactly who they were.
“She told me she was led to give this to him,” Daren said.
As the elevator doors opened, the woman stepped out and began walking toward the front of the hospital. When she was about 15 feet away, Daren asked her name.
She paused and said she didn’t want any social media posts and hadn’t done this for recognition — she was simply led to give the money to Hunter.
Then she said her name: Lyndsey.
Daren asked if he could give her a hug. As he hugged her, he thanked her again. He took two steps forward — and suddenly realized he had exited on the second floor, not the first.
When he turned back around, the woman was gone.
There were no other people in the hallway. No elevator doors opening or closing. No side doors. The corridor stretched 50 to 60 yards in either direction — completely empty.
“She vanished,” Daren said. “In the two seconds it took me to turn around, she was gone.”
She hadn’t been wearing hospital staff clothing or a name badge. There was no place she could have gone without being seen.
“I walked the hallway,” he said. “If I hadn’t been standing there holding a stack of folded cash, I would have thought I imagined the whole thing.”
Daren says he had never seen the woman before — and hasn’t seen her since.
