Alyssa Capelli isn’t the typical 6-year-old girl.
“My daughter is a very old soul,” said Alyssa’s mother, Melinda Chiappine. “Always very intuitive and she knows exactly how you’re feeling by looking at you. A lot of children don’t have that ability.”
It’s that ability that helped save the 32-year-old Hammonton, New Jersey woman’s life. Chiappine and her daughter came back to their home Saturday morning after eating breakfast. Chiappine made a phone call shortly before 10 a.m. Suddenly, everything went black.
“I cannot tell you what happened or when I passed out,” Chiappine said. “I was completely unconscious. I felt like I was in a movie and I did not feel like myself, it was the wildest feeling."
By the time Chiappine came to about ten minutes later, she was on the floor surrounded by police officers and paramedics. They wouldn’t have been there however, if not for her daughter. After hearing her mother fall and finding her unconscious on the floor, Alyssa immediately called 911.
“According to the call, she said ‘My mom won’t wake up,’” Chiappine said. “They asked where we lived and she gave them our address. I had taught her how to do that multiple times.”
Chiappine, who is anemic, say she’s fainted before, but had never gone through anything like what she went through on Saturday.
“Nothing like that has ever happened to me before where I had collapsed and had no recollection of anything,” she said. “I didn’t understand what was going on. I didn’t even know how old I was. I didn’t know my name.”
There is one thing however, that Chiappine says she immediately remembered.
“I kept asking for my daughter,” she said. “That was the only thing I was able to get out.”
Chiappine was taken to the hospital where she underwent several blood transfusions. When she returned home on Tuesday, she asked her daughter to show her where she found her. Her daughter’s answer amazed her.
“Mom, it doesn’t matter how I found you or what happened,” Alyssa replied. “All that matters is you’re here with me now.”
“Were you scared?” Chiappine asked.
“Mommy, I couldn’t be scared,” Alyssa said. “I had to be brave.”
It wasn’t the response one would expect from a 6-year-old girl. But as Chiappine said, her daughter is an old soul.
“That’s just something she has in her,” Chiappine said. “I can’t teach her that part.”
Photo Credit: Melinda Chiappine