I painted this in the darkest years and titled it Out of Darkness and Into the Light. Years later, it became the subtitle of the book.
Coming Soon:
The Memoir
For eight and a half years, Elena Bindas disappeared inside a body no one could explain. A workplace head injury in 2017 left her unable to walk unassisted, finish a sentence, read, or sit still. Specialist after specialist. Depression, anxiety, post-concussive syndrome. Twice, she was told she was faking it.
Then, in November 2025, one dose of a common medication ended it in a single afternoon.
Do You Believe in Miracles? is her daughter's account of those years — the advocacy, the record-keeping, the refusal to accept an answer that never fit. It is a book about what families see before anyone believes them, and about what happens when the person you have been fighting for finally comes back.
What I Offer
What I Offer
Keynotes and talks
Every appearance pairs live vocal performance with readings from the book. I'm a classically trained vocalist, and I spent almost ten years singing in assisted living centers and hospice rooms before I ever wrote anything down. Music reaches people when words can't.
For caregivers and families
What nine years of caregiving actually looks like — not the milestones, the Tuesdays. How to keep advocating when no one is listening. How to hold on when there's no timeline and no answer. And what happens on the other side, when you have to work out who you are once the caregiving ends.
For brain injury organizations
Catatonia after traumatic brain injury, and why it goes unrecognized. My mother saw specialist after specialist over eight and a half years, and not one of them named it. Families notice something is wrong long before anyone diagnoses it — I speak about what to look for and how to ask for an evaluation.
For medical and clinical audiences
A patient-and-family account of an eight-and-a-half-year diagnostic delay. Her case is being submitted for presentation at the American Psychiatric Association Annual Meeting so that residents learn to recognize what was missed in her. Suitable for Grand Rounds, residency teaching, and continuing education.
For faith communities
Believing when there's no evidence left. What it means to pray for nine years without an answer, and what happened when one finally came.
Appearing with my mother
Elena joins me when she's able. She is alive, articulate, and this is her story as much as mine. There are very few people who can describe this from the inside.
About Rikki
Rikki Jo Neyer is a memoirist, classically trained vocalist, and wedding officiant living in Michigan's Upper Peninsula.
For nearly a decade, she served as her mother's primary caregiver and advocate after a workplace brain injury took nearly everything from her, including the ability to walk unassisted, to read or write, or to sit still without moving violently.
No doctor could name what was happening. For eight and a half years, Rikki kept showing up anyway. In November 2025, her mother came back.
Do You Believe in Miracles? Our Journey Out of Darkness and Into the Light is the true story of those years and the afternoon that ended them.
Before she ever wrote a book, Rikki spent almost ten years singing in assisted living centers and hospice rooms, and she still believes music reaches people when words can't.
She runs Happy Beginnings, where she sings brides down the aisle and then marries them herself. She grew up in Chicago.
She writes for anyone sitting in the dark right now, and for the families still waiting.
If you’re in the quiet of a waiting room, or sitting beside a hospital bed, this story is for you.
I kept the records nobody asked me to keep, including every appointment, every specialist, every diagnosis that turned out to be wrong.
Nine years of it, in a spreadsheet.
It’s the reason my mother’s case is now being taught to psychiatry residents.
Turning the Tide
The Awakening Concert
My mother woke up in November 2025, after eight and a half years.
That spring, Dave Erfourth chose Joseph M. Martin's The Awakening for the Hiawathaland Community Chorus. He didn't know her story. He chose it because of his own awakening, years earlier — his own way out of the dark.
Sixty voices, ages eighteen to eighty-eight. My husband and I sing among them.
Some doors, I've come to believe, were already open before we thought to knock.
Watch below.
Invite Rikki to Speak
Please share a bit about your event, organization, and how you’d like me to be involved. I’ll be in touch as soon as I can.