Broken Waters

Maggy, 39, wakes up from a recurring dream she's had since childhood, one of drowning and suffocating that has left her with a severe phobia of water. A distraught widow for six months following her husband Justin's death, she yearns to get return to some semblance of a normal life including family, friends who are like family, and her work as a nurse practitioner. A Southern firecracker (with matching wild red hair), her family and friends continue to be concerned about her well-being, including her father, Merle, her mother Bess, and her grandmother, May Pearl. Outside of her work in hospice, Maggy's only other sense of continuity is her alternate spirituality that uses aspects of Gullah culture, rootwork, and the elements-learned from Solomon and Evangeline, who work on Maggy's parents' farm as caretaker and housekeeper. Her friends, Sass (like a sister and the daughter of Solomon and Evangeline); Tilly, a sulky high school principal; Venus, a prestigious regional hospice care administrator; and Poppy, a distracted child services social worker. Maggy's experience with her mother has been aloof and distant her entire life, despite Bess having a warm relationship with Maggy's brother and sister. Her slightly older brother, Seth, died of a congenital heart defect only months before Maggy's birth, which remains a painful memory for the family. Her mother, Bess, haunted by her son's death, is a staunch card-carrying member of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR) and serves as their local chairperson, immersing herself in its charitable works for a sense of meaning and purpose. Maggy's friends, in an attempt to ease her grief and loneliness, force her to meet a new vascular surgeon, Drake, at their local dive. She becomes enraged, with her late husband's memory still so fresh, yet in time she softens enough to view Drake as a friend. Synchronicities throw Maggy and Drake together repeatedly at social events, first at a local DAR event, and again at her brother and his partner's art event which compels her to see Drake in a new light. Stuck in the throes of grief while making it seem she's fine on the outside, Maggy silently plans to end her life. She plots her death and even makes arrangements in her will for her little dog, Priddy Boy. However, her intuition continues to haunt her with an unsettled knowing that before she carries out her plan, she must accomplish one last and as yet unknown service. A sudden health emergency erupts with Sass's son, Jay Jay and issues come to a dire head, forcing Maggy make a decision to realize that her final act may end up claiming her own life. As she suffers unexpected complications during her own surgical procedure, she finds herself propelled out of her body and into a dimension beyond the physical realm, where she is shown unknown information about her life and is briefly reunited with her late husband. Will the things that Justin shows her force Maggy to have a last-minute change of heart? Something that shakes her to her core and forces her to consider a second chance at life? Can Drake reach her in time to change the trajectory of events that led her to this decision?