My name is Marta, I am from Poland but living in Hawaii for the past 25 years and mother to Sabina who is my oldest daughter of 4 and I care for her full time. Sabina suffers from a traumatic brain injury due to a car accident in 2008 and since then I have been caring for her. Prior to the accident she was extremely sporty and loved the water, from being a scuba diver to wake boarding to paddling, she did it all. Even though she recovered well, her ability to participate in all of these activities was significantly limited due to her suffering frequent epileptic episodes. In 2021, Sabina survived a life debilitating seizure that left her with further brain damage, paralysis on her left side and verbal impairments. Since then, she has been in rehabilitation which is where we learned about AccesSurf from one of the patients also attending. Due to her present condition, without assistance it is impossible for her to participate in any of the activities she loved so much before. This is why AccesSurf is so special to us, because It has given back apart of her life from before and being able to witness others surfing, helped her overcome her fear of getting back into the water.
AccesSurf means everything to us. It means the freedom that she can’t normally have, and giving her back some of the life that she had before. She is very aware of her condition which caused her to not want to leave the house and it is extremely encouraging for her to see other members of the community enjoying the swimming and surfing despite their condition.
As a mother every time I see her going into the water I cry with tears of gratitude. Seeing her happy face whenever she comes out of the water gives me the strength that I need to take care of her. For sabina her favorite memory would definitely be the first time she went surfing. I remember her crying and wanting to hug everybody that volunteer to help make this all possible. Of course I also remember the lunch she eats and the joy when she ate her favorite food: Hamburgers!
I just want to share that I will never be able to express in words the amount of gratitude I have for all of the volunteers and organizers. To my daughter they gave her a life, which in then gave me life. Whenever she is well, we come to AccesSurf and love every second of it. AccesSurf helps me in the grieving process and acceptance of her new condition and how to adapt to this new life and the joys within it.
