79-Year-Old Woman Wakes From Coma to Rock to Bob Seger

Should anyone doubt the power of music, tell them the story of Evie Branan. Thursday night (April 11) in Auburn Hills, Michigan the 79-year-old rocked out at a Bob Seger concert -- shaking her booty and throwing her arms in the air, mlive reports. If that wasn't impressive enough, less than two years ago she was in semi-coma. When she finally awakened on May 7, 2011, after five years, her first words were, "I want to go to a Bob Seger concert."

That wish became a reality on Thursday night. After her story became national news, she was given the VIP treatment at the show. She met Seger and his family and hung out with the band and crew. Other fans at the show recognized her, after seeing her story on the news.

Although she was pushed through the halls of The Palace of Auburn Hills in a wheelchair, by the time Bob and the band started rocking, she mustered the strength to stand up and shake her moneymaker. "I loved it," she told mlive. "It was fantastic. This is the happiest I've been in a long time."

At the after-show party, Branan was treated like a celebrity, swarmed by other fans who wanted to take her photo and hear her story. Seger's saxophone player Alto Reed was moved by it all. "She's a sweetheart," he told mlive. "She's a celebrity now and it's beautiful. Life is magic. Magic happens every day and she's an example of that. Never give up."

If you wanted to sum up Evie's night in song, it wouldn't be The Smith's 1987 mope-rock classic, in which Morrissey feyly croons, "Let me whisper my last goodbyes," but rather Seger's own 1986 hit, "Like a Rock," in which he sings, "I stood proud, I stood tall / High above it all / I still believed in my dreams." Evie Branan does.

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