Who was the Real Sleeping Beauty

In the late 1800s, a town in Sweden was on the brink of fame for being the home of a real-life sleeping beauty. It all happened on a little island called Okno, where 1414-year-old Carolina Olson lived with her family. She lived in a large family with her mother, father, and her five brothers. They were a farming and fishing family. Just like many others on this little remote island.

Carolina became a household name by sleeping for 18 years. Her appearance was unchanged in those years. Woke up to a different world than the one she fell asleep in.

This story begins on February 18th, 1876, Carolina was on her way home across the icy river and fell, some say she fell through the ice and was pulled to safety at the very last second. Other people say she fell and hit her head. Knocking a tooth loose and getting a toothache. No matter which story is the truth she still made it home and by all counts, she seemed perfectly fine. A toothache or bruised head. Her father said she looked just fine.

Then they claim her toothache had gotten worse and she started suffering from headaches. Her parents blamed the headaches on witchcraft. In those times superstition was very high. Her parents told her to go to sleep and that they will try and do stuff in the morning if need be. Being that they were so far away from other people, there was not much they could do that evening. So she went to bed that evening and never woke up again until she was 32 years old.

Her parents could not afford a doctor so they tried several methods to try and wake her up. One would be a hot flame across her skin and pricking her with a bunch of needles. They went as far as to poke her under her fingernails to wake her. After a few days of not being able to wake her, they sent for a doctor to come to look at her. They force-fed her two glasses of milk and sugar every day. The doctor came and said she was in a coma. They did not know why she was in the coma though. As the days went on for a year, other doctors came to look at her since the local doctor could not figure out what was wrong with her.

They could not figure out why despite living off of two glasses of milk a day she did not lose any weight, her muscles remained in shape, Her hair and fingernails had not grown during the whole time she was in the coma.

In July 1882, it has been a full 6 years since her parents finally decided to hospitalize her. They tried electroshock to wake her up and that also did not work. They told the family they just had to wait and hope for the best. The only time she had shown any signs of the outside world was when she cried in her sleep when her brother passed away.

On April 3rd, 1908 Carolina finally woke up. With no ill effect of her sleeping so long beside her eyes hurt in the sunlight. She did not recognize her grown brothers and barely spoke for the first few days. Doctors were amazed they had nothing wrong with her, all her intelligence and cognitive abilities still as they were before she fell asleep.

People thought this was just a way to keep her hidden from the world. Doctors said it could have been a deep psychosis. No one knows what happened to her and how she could be in such great condition after being in a coma for so many years.

©Kerrie Gutierrez-Diaz 2022