Christine Callans

Chandler made steady progress. Three months later, as he was nearing his release date, the ward was rocked again when 34-year-old Christine Callans' heart suddenly failed.

Chris, who had been a member of the Church for three years at the time, has a condition called hypertropic cardiomyopathy. Among other side effects, it can cause the heart to experience arrhythmia, or disruption of electric pulses, and to stop beating. Chris was aware of her condition, but it had never caused her any trouble before. The morning of October 4, she had started her early-morning exercise routine when her heart experienced uneven pulses and she collapsed. Her son, Brian, who was 10 years old at the time, found her lying on the floor and ran for his father, Joe.

Brian called for emergency help, and Joe started CPR. Before long, paramedics arrived and started Chris's heart again. As the ambulance drove off, Joe wondered what to do with his children. A neighbor offered to take care of his daughters, and Joe called ward member Sabrina Larsen, who lived a couple of streets away, to watch his sons. Joe, who is a member of another church, knew Sabrina because he occasionally attends LDS Sunday services with his family. "She was here in what seemed like 60 seconds," Joe recalls. She took the Callans' sons and told Joe not to worry about them.

As the ambulance sped to the hospital, Chris's heart failed again, and when she arrived at the emergency room, she was clinically dead. As doctors worked to resuscitate Chris, another emergency-room doctor arrived. Eric Shipley, a friend, ward member, and doctor, was not on call that day, but when he heard what had happened, he came to see if he could offer Joe support.

"As I was driving to the hospital, I called the emergency room, and they said she still didn't have a heartbeat," says Eric. "I knew her chances were abysmal."

Eric remembers that when he arrived, it was a "pretty chaotic scene." After nearly an hour of resuscitation efforts, "for reasons that aren't completely clear to me, she regained a pulse," Eric recalled.

After Chris was moved to a cardiac unit, Joe became aware that members of the ward were in the waiting room. Matt Balkman, a member of the bishopric and Chandler's uncle, told Joe he didn't want him to have to worry about anything but Chris. Matt insisted that he and other ward members coordinate the logistics of picking up extended family members, watching over the Callans' home, and making sure their four children were well cared for. They also promised to be a buffer for Joe, keeping people at arm's length until he was ready for visitors.

"The ward was great," recalls Joe. "People mobilized like nothing else I've ever seen."

Although Chris's heartbeat was back to normal, doctors warned Joe that it was unlikely she would recover all of her brain functions. If she did wake up, they cautioned, she might not be anything like the Chris he knew. At this news, ward members steeled themselves to handle yet another tragedy.

But the morning after her collapse, Chris woke up on her own. Over the next several days, her heartbeat remained stable and her brain functions and memory returned. On October 12—the same day Chandler was released—Chris went home.

The ward's support continued. For months, ward members brought meals and visited, while still respecting the family's privacy. For Chris, it was a testament of the truthfulness of the gospel.

"I really believe this—the ward family—is the way God intended for things to work," she says. "It's a whole different way of thinking about relationships and people."