Most Devoted Bob Seger Fan Ever?

Branan woke up from her vegetative state, described by the Flint Journal as a “semi coma,” when she fell and hit her head. Before that the newspaper says she wasn’t able to “speak, move or eat on her own.” As for Branan’s recovery since waking up, her speech has returned and she’s using a walker to help her take up to 150 steps a day. The rest of the time she is in her wheelchair.

“Eventually I will get up on my own because I won’t give up,” Branan told the Flint Journal. “Hopefully, people who have had a stroke read this and won’t give up.”

She laughs when talking to the newspaper about the first words she uttered in more than five years.

“Why would I say that?” Branan told the newspaper. “Maybe my last thoughts were Bob Seger before I had my stroke.”

Well, she’s going to get her wish when she attends Seger’s show Thursday in Auburn Hills, Mich., at The Palace Of Auburn Hills.   

Thanks to Seger’s management company, Punch Enterprises, and Willowbrook Manor nursing home administrator Michelle Cross, Branan has also been invited to the April 11 concert’s after-party.

Since suffering a massive stroke Branan has been a resident of Willowbrook Manor in Flint Township, Mich. Cross bought tickets to the April 11 show for herself, Branan and one of Branan’s aides at the nursing home. And then she called Punch Enterprises to share Branan’s story.

Ann Tenbrusch, executive assistant for Punch Enterprises, helped secure Brenan an invite to the after-party after passing on the story to the management company’s owner, Punch Andrews.

“(Her story) was definitely nothing I had heard before,” Tenbrusch told the Flint Journal. “I always want to try to help out with stories like that because Bob loves his fans. It’s such a cool story I just wanted to help out in any way I could.”

Before suffering the stroke and coma, Branan had seen Seger perform four times.