When Maria Alexander was 27 years old, she was struck by a car while crossing the street and remained in a coma for over four years after the accident. But when she awoke, something about her had irreparably changed.
“I don’t remember a lot from the first few days of being awake,” Maria tells us. “But my friends and family tells me that I started ordering everyone around, telling them to prepare dough and that the pizza tracker clock was running out.”
While Maria was unclear about it at the time, it appears that she had awoken with the complete ability to assistant manage a Domino’s pizza franchise.
“Maria has never even worked at a Domino’s before,” says Maria’s mother, Renata. “So it was shocking to see her with this sudden ability to make sure everyone was on task and that someone was on cheesy bread duty.”
“At first we were like, okay, we’re just happy she’s alive, so we’ll make the pizzas,” said Maria’s best friend, Carla. “But after awhile we’re like, we’re not getting paid for this, and Maria just told us we should speak to the manager about our hourly pay?”
Once Maria went through full rounds of physical and speech therapy, she was immediately drawn to the local Domino’s in her neighborhood, putting on an apron and getting right to work.
Coworkers were amazed by her swift ability to manage staff and quality control with ease.
“I had no idea who this woman was, but all of a sudden she’s like, the best assistant manager ever,” says Luis, a Domino’s pizza maker and senior in high school. “Like, damn, she wasn’t trained to do this? That’s crazy.”
While she is missed at her former position as VP of marketing at Salesforce, Maria told us that she’s happy with her sudden talent and newfound calling.
“You gotta do what you’re good at,” says Maria. “And I guess, deep down in my subconscious, my calling was overseeing the making of sort-of bad pizza.”
We are forever in awe the wonders of the brain!
