It's more than a shock, being reborn. Of course, dying is just as much of a shock. For Susan Gardner, experiencing both put her in a state that made her wonder often it she was simply hallucinating.
Her death wasn't the simple painless death she had thought she would have. Fear of dying in her sleep lead to long nights of insomnia, but it turned out to be unfounded.
No, Susan Gardner died in fire, caused by an accident in the kitchen. She supposed it was just as well she lived alone. She didn't have any family, either—her parents had divorced long ago, her dad later dying of cancer and her mother going off the grid who knew where.
It was just as well she hadn't been a very good mother. Her father, she had truly loved, but it had been nearly ten years since his death, which had long dulled the pain, and he'd had the cancer for years prior to his death.
It hadn't stopped her from getting a master's degree in psychology, as he had when he was young, to make him proud, and then using it to teach at Harvard. She'd been an accomplished professor, really, which made her death all the more surprising.
She didn't have too many regrets, though, which was even more surprising. She did wish she'd at the very least gotten to watch the next episode of Supernatural, one if the few thrills in her fairly monotonous life.
She'd regret that wish soon enough.