Dear Brody Mihocek

 

Dear Brody Mihocek,

You don’t know me. We’ve never met but I have watched you play a bit of footy. I’m a Collingwood fan from Brunswick East.

==

I feel compelled to write this public letter after I heard of your injury on Monday afternoon. Through headphones I heard simultaneous horrified groans from commentators Luke Ball and Bob Murphy on ABC radio. Earlier I’d parked the car in Trenerry Crescent, Abbotsford and walked around the old Collingwood ground, Victoria Park. I’d sat in the stand. Watched a border collie bound along the grass. Imagined the game taking place before me. High cloud streaked the sky.

By the time that pair of moans captured me, I’d walked down the hill to the river. Imagined old tanneries and factories of the Collingwood Flat. Upstream I’d walked, in shadows cast by low winter sun.

“Ohhhhhhhh!!”
“Oh no!”
“Awwwwwwwww.”
“Awwwwwwwww.”

==

I wonder how you are.
I wonder how your body is going.
I wonder about spinal shock and I wonder about nerves.
There is no rush.

==

ABC radio callers paint the picture. Corben Middlemas and Ben Cameron speak in sombre tones. And though from here I can’t see you, I can see you. I’m here on the bend just downstream of Dight’s Falls. The river bend is in shadow. But all I can see is you lying on the ground. To me it sounds very much like a cervical neck injury, though commentators keep saying head injury.

And there is no threat to me, no implied threat, no difficulty. But here on the river bank quite suddenly I lose my breath. I’m caught in a wash of sobs. Tears are in my eyes. I can’t see.

==

I wonder how you are.
I wonder how members of your family are feeling.
I wonder what your prognosis is.
And whatever it is, it’s just a prognosis.

==

On the edge of the river at Abbotsford, a pair of kayakers leave the rapids course. A middle-aged woman jogs past. And another.

“They’re really taking their time with him out there.”

These are unexpected tears.
But I know them.
They are tears born of broken neck trauma from 31 years ago.
And that’s OK.

They are welcome.

==

Every neck injury is different, I expect.
Just like every human is different.
Who can say what recovery will look like for you?

==

My projections and my fears and my memories are all mine.
They are mine for me to deal with.

They protect me.
And now they encourage me to let you know that I’m thinking of you.

So Brody Mihocek, I just want to wish you well.

==

“I can see Brody Mihocek and it looks like he’s moving his foot.”

==

On the far side of the river, eucalypts stand tall and reach for afternoon sun.

==

Go well, Brody Mihocek.
And go well Billy Frampton. Just like for KB who was driving the car in which I sustained my broken C5 vertebra in 1995, accidents happen.
Go well, footballers everywhere.

==

 

A search and a small revelation on 21 January — from January 2014

Almanac Life (and bodysurfing): Last wave — from February 2021

 

 

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