As the saying goes, you never get a second chance to make a first impression, and that's mostly true. For some, though, life throws a big curveball your way, and you get the opportunity to do exactly that.
Follow one couple's unbelievable story as they met, caught feelings for one another, and then had to do it all over again after an accident changed both of their lives forever.
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When someone becomes so important to your life that they're intertwined in everything you do, you might think it's impossible to ever forget them. They mean the world to you; how could they ever slip your mind when you see and think about them all the time?
It's rare, but it can happen, as couple Cody Bryant and Haley Woloshen learned when one freak accident changed both of their lives forever.
The couple first met when they were both independently on vacation in Hawaii in 2022. They met at a bar and soon discovered they were both from the same small town in California, a true star-crossed meeting if there ever was one.
They spent the rest of that night spending time together and getting to know one another. Once back home, they did start dating, a casual status that was already growing into something special. A month later, they were set to take a break while Bryant traveled to Spain for a while for his videography job.
"I dropped him off at the airport and expected to pick him up again when he got back," Woloshen said in an interview with People. “We were texting after he got there and then suddenly — nothing.”
While Bryant was riding a moped in Ibiza, he was hit by a car, suffering a traumatic brain injury, falling into a coma, and experiencing post-traumatic amnesia. He forgot entirely about the past month he'd known Woloshen. Except, however, their first meeting in Maui. That, he still remembered.
"In a text that will live in infamy, I wrote 'Checking in that Ibiza didn't kill you,' " Woloshen recalled.
He had traveled to Spain with two friends, friends who were able to get in contact with his family, namely his mom and aunt.
"Doctors didn't know if I was going to live or, if I did, if I would make it out of a vegetative state," Bryant said. “Everyone was in crisis mode.”
Unfortunately, his family hadn't been aware of he and Woloshen's casual relationship status at the time, meaning she didn't find out what happened until she searched through social media and saw a GoFundMe post from his sister to help pay for his medical bills.
She reached out to his family and sent them her best, but was convinced that would be the last she heard of him. "I expected to never see him again," she said. "If anything, I imagined with living in the same town we would run into each other at some point."
Bryant woke up again about five days after the accident, namely after his mom came into the room and he heard her calling him 'Cody Bear.'
A month after that, he was returning to his home country directly to a rehab facility. He was finally able to use his phone again once he got there, which is how he started to remember not only about Woloshen but about their relationship.
"I saw all the messages I had sent to Haley and I was like, 'Whoa, I must have liked this girl,' " he said. He knew he needed to respond, so he wrote, “Hey, sorry I missed your message.”
Woloshen reports laughing at the nonchalant nature of his returning message, and soon enough, the two were talking every day again, just as they were before.
Bryant got to learn about Woloshen all over again, and this time, Woloshen knew it was more serious. "I knew this was so much bigger than a three-week fling," she said. "There were a lot of things in flux, a lot of fragility with Cody. [...] It wasn't about jumping back into a romance."
That wasn't the only struggle they were facing, though. Another side effect of the brain trauma he suffered was the paralysis of the left side (as well as missing a few teeth from the impact). He was still in the early stages of healing, so there was a chance the paralysis could subside, but he was nervous about Woloshen seeing him in that state.
"Did I want to see her enough that I'll risk her seeing me? I was embarrassed, but I knew I wanted to and decided it was worth it to see her again.”
Woloshen couldn't deny that her feelings were returning, and in early 2023, the two were talking about really committing to one another.
"We talked about, is this a viable time to start a relationship?" she said.
Bryant was definitely getting better, but they both knew he was forever changed by what happened. The two "had very open discussions about, 'Do we realize what we're signing up for?’" he explained. “But I’m thankful that we’re doing it together.”
Now, the two are more in love than ever. Woloshen calls Bryant "the most loveable person I've ever met, while Bryant's sister has said that Woloshen offers a "safe place" for him, someone who offers "a fresh, clean slate."
The two are working together to manage Bryant's disability as the GoFundMe money is helping him through rehab. Woloshen has called this entire journey "an insane situation" that still brought about something "amazing."
As she said, "Who knows if prior to everything happened, if we would've connected the way that we did. It's silver lining, I guess, in all of it."
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