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”Hello” “Caroline; you & James SAVED ME aye?!!” …“ohh.. umm.. yeah” “THANK YOU! THANK YOU SO MUCH!” I mean, thinking about it now – I probably could’ve taken a more... subtle approach, because honestly...shit was a little awkward haha! You could feel the shyness... the awkwardness, from both of us. It was okay though – I just needed her/them to know I was thankful. We hung up from that call & every year since it happened, I’ve never forgotten them. SO… *deeeeep breath* March 1st, 1999 – the day I committed the ultimate fuck-up! i.didn’t.listen.to.my.mum – BUT, (I believe) in a fucked up way, it’s been a blessing-in-disguise (I do have my reasons, but I’m not ready to share them). AND! it’s the day two brave teens, I’d grown up knowing, SAVED ME... --- IIIII dived into shallow water. No one pushed me. I underestimated the waters depth. I thought I could “bomb” like the boys… yet I chose to dive?? Wtf kylie?! I was the one that didn’t fucking listen when mum told me, NO! --- wellll...this is kinda’ debatable cos, mum said no bridge...I dived off the jetty.next.to.the.bridge... I even think I could have made a shitty dive. no, no, no! it WAS a shitty dive!! - be real bitch! Overall, i-fucked-up-BIGTIME!!! --- I had been floating towards the bridge, at least 10-15M before someone realised, FUCK! something was wrong! & this is where you can finally be introduced to JAMES! James is a local from my hometown also known as Donut (sorry, I had too hehe!). A little older than me. We went to the same school. Everyone knows everyone or you’re related haha it's a small town thing! He was up on the bridge at the time. & lucky for me, he was on the opposite side to everyone else, which happened to be, the side I was floating towards...without any hesitations – James saw me and jumped straight off the top, quickly swam to where I was, grabbed hold of me and rushed me over to the bank... This is where Caroline comes in… Caroline, another local from home. Went to the same school. Dabbled in the same horse scenes. Friends with my older cousins. I don’t actually know where she was situated at the time. What I do know is - She performed CPR on me ;- quick & smart thinking saved my fucking life and I’m FOREVER grateful. (DISCLAIMER: this is my version of their part, from what I’ve been told. This isn’t from their P.O.V – I’ve actually never asked them... I think I’m too awkward to do that now though haha!) Acknowledgments’ & an award each, were presented to them – nothing could ever repay them though! You see, if it wasn’t for these two, the cold-hard truthful fact is – I’d be DEAD. I would have 100% died that day. I’m not even fucking kidding! ...let’s just let that shit sink in for a bit. James & Caroline are my real-life superheroes! And every-single-year, March 1st, I remember them. I think of them. ...and, I’m thankful. so fucking thankful!!! I've kept it simple & short for their part, because no words could ever express how grateful I am! --- here's a little throwback tribute article xx  Article credit: Thank you to my klones Aunty who works at the Herald, for finding this for me x RIGHT. so , so far, we’ve found out that – I dived into shallow water, I'd broken my neck (don’t worry, at this stage I still didn’t know what came with having this injury) and now you’ve just been introduced to my real-life superheroes BUT, it’s time to carry on! Because... “[Pssssttttt!! Quick interruption – SO sorry about the late post *cough cough ...2 months* ! Legit reasons with a million excuses so there’s no point trying to explain shit. Just know, i am human & im gona’ have “can’t be fucked” moments. HERE NOW – that’s what matters.]” SO , as I was about to say before the interruption! ... The next 3 to 4 weeks in hospital, shit gets really fucking real!! It started with, every 2 – 3 hours a day. I had to have my arms put into, what was being called “airplane wings" position – it's where my arms were placed straight out to the sides of my body, onto thin boards that slid under my bed slats. I had a love/hate relationship with it! But I had no choice.
Those hours endured...painful. always ended up being painful. Again though, I had no choice. Doctors would come in everyday. I don’t remember any. There was always SO many! Nurses would tend me regularly. I loved my nurses. i even had a couple of favs Physio would come for my daily treatment of stretches.
All that could be done to benefit my body, was being done to the best of their abilities, with my limitations! so.many.different.faces.DAY-IN.DAY-OUT Meanwhile,
back in my hometown – my school was doing a coin fundraiser for me. I was so overwhelmed. And from that I was given a Walkman. At the time those were the “in – things” back then. And I remember specifically asking if my friend Jaedi could be the one to make a mixed sounds TAPE for me! Yes, tape my loves, a CASSETTE TAPE ---do millennials even know what these are?? Britney Spears – hit me baby one more time was the “it" song at the time (or my "it" song Haha) omg! AND it's the only fucking song on the tape that I remember, dammit! - Brother Michael (he was Deputy Principal at my school back then) would visit me. He came to visit a few times and I'm pretty sure he is the one that brought the Walkman to me hehe. The music got me through my days. The last visit from Brother Michael, that I “remember” is, him standing near my bed and we're talking (about what?! Idek!?) AND THEN! I start coughing (which I couldn't actually do due to my injury), so “coughing” soon turned into struggling to breathe... *& for some reason, I've always had the memory of Brian being there at the same time as well!?? But?? Idk and I don't think he'd remember either. (just thought I'd add this little side note in though) – I was probably delusional though, because HELLO! Struggling to breathe lol Next thing I knew, the nurses are running in and around. My hospital gown (EW!) was ripped open to make a clear path to my chest ---holy fuck, shit was serious! ...umm gasping for air is quite serious. ha! it's okay! was just a chest infection lol --- FUCK! I need to add this – I was STILL Nil-By-Mouth -_- & the fucking craving for scrambled eggs was UNREAAAAL. I salivated, got angry, felt sad, was annoyed all because I wanted scrambled eggs but I wasn’t allowed to eat :/ Fuck you NBM!!! I was a little maori girl from the East Coast ---WE LOVE FOOD! Hha! --- Days were long. They dragged. My Dad though, he was so cute! He would paint my nails – he was so proud of himself and excited cos he bought me a confetti nail polish (Christmas polish, he called it lol). I never had the heart to tell him it was ugly hahahaha! He would also assist with bed turning, changing etc. I mean, Mum did too, but for my Dad to be doing these kinds of things too?! It was awesome. Weird but so awesome! And I loved that they were there with me but, at the same time , ...I felt awful inside. My sisters were so young, and I had just taken our Mum & Dad away from them, and so suddenly too! I never told anyone. I mean, how could I? there was already enough trauma & shit going on. * I haven't touched on the halo sitcho. in this one. Let me do that real quick. ...it was STILL on -_- i hated it it hurt it was painful it was uncomfortable it was restricted as fuck. There were nights where I couldn't sleep because of it. i cried. i cried so much. only at night time the most though, because... that's when Mum & Dad would be gone. & it would be just the night nurses and me. I had been on Morphine for the pain. It was so good! It relaxed me. I could sleep when I was on it. I was only given it for pain though. But because I noticed the effect it gave me for sleeping; sometimes, I would fake my pain. Yes, yes! I know I should not have done that blah blah blah! - I'm not sorry about it. I was sleep deprived. I was uncomfortable and i was fucking over it! I just wanted to feel relaxed enough to sleep. & so, i did what was necessary :) so that's the halo situation. --- By the morning, it was time to rock & roll again... same shit. different day! i was fucking over it. But, I must admit - I had formed an amazing friendship with a nurse (I loved all of my nurses, but this one was special) who became my absolute favourite! I always looked forward to her shifts on with me. She was kind, compassionate, lovely, caring, reliable, took no shit from me haha! Julie (nurse) was on shift this particular day. I was so excited to see her! We did our normal routines. Laughed and chit chatted throughout. & I remember looking out my window, through my mirrors (the ones attached to my bed, remember?). Julie asks about home - i loved telling all of those city peoples about the beautiful little paradise I come from. None of them had ever heard of Tolaga Bay lol. I told Julie all about it. What it looks like, the beaches, the township, the population at the time, the lifestyle.. fuck! it made me homesick. it made me miss home and everything I knew. I said to Julie; "I can't wait to go back there! I miss home so much! I miss my sisters! Omg! I can't wait to see my horse JJ!!! I can't wait to ride him again" At this point Julie is quiet. & I noticed. me being me, had to question it! "Why have you gone quiet?" "I'm going to be able to ride my horse again, right?" ...Sweetie, I can't answer that for you, I'm so sorry. TELL ME PLEASE :( I can't, Julie says, in a really sad tone. "Julie, am I ever going to walk again??"....
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