When Mary Goulding first awoke from 12 days in a coma following a horrific car accident in late-May, her first thought was, “what am I doing here? I have basketball training to get to”.
Soon after, as the reality of her situation emerged, the mindset shifted.
That’s when she realised how lucky she was just to be alive.
Now, as time has gone on, and the full extent of her injuries have been assessed, treatment undergone, rehabilitation kicked into gear, this 26-year-old Canterbury and Tall Ferns basketballer has found a familiar place in her mentality.
The competitor in her, the achiever, has taken over.
Survival mode has been replaced by a fierce determination that she is going to make it back on to a basketball court.
“The Mary Goulding story is not finished,” she says with a smile that lights up the small room she’s calling home in the rehabilitation facility in Auckland where she’s working at becoming whole again.
Goulding has agreed to speak to Stuff exclusively from the treatment centre, still early in her recovery process, because she has people she is desperate to thank, a story she wants to tell.
She has also been nothing short of overwhelmed by the outpouring of love, support and prayers she received from all around the world following the harrowing accident she suffered in Rangiora, just north of Christchurch, on May 20 whilst driving for a training session between camps with the Tall Ferns.
“I don’t know why this happened,
right when everything was falling into place, …
but I know God
is going to do something amazing through this.
I just know there is more to come in this life.”
Understand this: Goulding has just waded through a minefield of trauma she now knows could have killed her.
Very nearly did.
She has only just regained the ability to speak above a whisper, to swallow and taste soft food, to drink water.
She is in the very early stages of a recovery process that will take months, maybe years to get where she wants to.
Yet she has invited us into her little sanctum of healing because this shining, beautiful soul understands the importance of sharing.
“I’m not sure what God has planned for the rest of my life, but I have no doubt He didn’t really have a choice with all the prayers,” she says.
“But there must be something else I’m meant to be.”
There must be.
For when she lay in critical condition in Christchurch Hospital, for 12 days kept in an induced coma because of the severity of her injuries, grave fears were held for her life.
Scans showed a brain injury, not to mention serious damage to her left leg, and neck and shoulder on the right side.
Father Tim, mother Jennifer, and siblings Georgia, John Paul, Bernadette and Celine (oldest sister Lara could not make it from Toronto but was in daily contact) all feared for the worst, even while they prayed for the best.
Then, when she finally transitioned out of critical condition, and was judged ready to take the most important step of her recovery, opening one eye, then the other, what emerged was nothing short of a miracle.
Sure, the body was battered and mind confused, but it soon became clear to a delirious Goulding family that their Mary had emerged from that dark place as well as could have been expected.
Undoubtedly their prayers had been answered. Continue reading