Even the night that Cody Bryant and Haley Woloshen first met when they were on vacation in Hawaii seems like something out of a movie, and it sounds like a movie with a lot of unexpected turns and twists.

Bryant was on vacation in Maui with her friends and family on August 6, 2022. She was also there with her family. When they met in a bar in Lahaina, they found out that they both resided in the teeny-tiny town of Hermosa Beach, which is located close to Los Angeles. The coincidence caused them to chuckle, and after that, they committed a significant portion of the evening to spending time together, swimming in the water and watching a meteor shower.

We thought to ourselves, ‘This is incredible. In an exclusive interview for this week’s edition of People, Bryant, who is 35 years old, tells the publication, “What a story.” It was not something that we anticipated would develop into anything crazy from that point on.

The word “wild” is an understatement.

As they connected over common hobbies like as traveling and participating in outdoor activities, their initial spark in Hawaii rapidly transformed into a casual but blossoming romance back in their home country. When Bryant, a residential filmmaker and frequent explorer, embarked on a journey that was slated to take place in Spain, there was something that was meant to be a short halt.

“I dropped him off at the airport and expected to pick him up again when he got back,” Woloshen, who is 28 years old and works for a start-up company that develops software application for medical devices, says to PEOPLE. “After he arrived, we were texting each other, and then all of a sudden, there was nothing.”

On September 6, 2022, precisely one month to the day after their first encounter, Bryant was riding a moped in Ibiza when he was hit by a vehicle. Woloshen was unaware of this tragedy, which occurred exactly one month after their first encounter. As a result of a serious brain injury, he was placed in a coma and many of his memories were taken away from him. These memories included all of the time he had spent with Woloshen, with the exception of their initial encounter on Maui.

“I wrote ‘Checking in that Ibiza didn’t kill you’ in a text that will live on in infamy,” Woloshen recalls today. “It will live on in fame forever.”

An orthopedic physician and a nurse who spoke Spanish, who was now engaged to the surgeon, were Bryant’s traveling companions. They had a significant role in the events that followed: During the time that his mother and aunt were rushing to get to him, they took care of him.

In order to provide care for their handicapped father, his sister Rachel, who was residing in the vicinity of Bryant at the time, traveled to their birthplace in North Carolina.

This is what Bryant had to say about the situation: “Doctors did not know if I was going to live or, if I did, if I would make it out of a vegetative state.” “Everyone was in a state of an emergency.”

To add insult to injury, nobody was thinking about the lady who had just recently met him six weeks before.

When Woloshen was at home, his curiosity was running at full speed. She searched through Bryant’s social media network and came on a post from Rachel, who is 31 years old, about a GoFundMe campaign to raise money for Bryant’s ever-increasing medical expenses.

After she became aware that he had been battling for his life, she reached out to his loved ones in order to convey them good wishes while maintaining a respectful distance from them.

then states, “I anticipated that I would never see him again,” and then goes on to explain, “If anything, I imagined that because we lived in the same town, we would possibly run into each other at some point.”

On social media, notably a well-known TikTok account, Bryant has described what it was like to recover consciousness on September 11, 2022, when his mother entered his hospital room in Spain. Bryant’s mother was taking him to the hospital. His response to PEOPLE is, “It sounds like cheesy.” However, when I heard her say ‘Cody Bear,’ I began to become aware of my surroundings.

On October 11 of that year, he ultimately made his way back to the United States and checked himself into a rehabilitation center. It was at that point that he was able to use his phone once again, which provided him with the first indication of the relationship that he had forgotten about.

“I was like, ‘Whoa, I must have liked this girl,'” he recalls. “I saw all of the messages that I had sent to Haley,” he adds. As a result, he decided to take a risk, and Woloshen giggled when she got his text message. “Hey,” he said, “pardon me for missing your message.”

As time went on, Bryant and Woloshen made it a habit to communicate with one another on a daily basis as they rediscovered each other.
“I knew this was so much bigger than a three-week fling,” she adds in her statement.

There was a great deal of instability, and there was a great deal of vulnerability with Cody… According to her, “it was not about getting back into a romantic relationship.”

at addition, Bryant overcame his own apprehensions around the prospect of her seeing him at an early stage of his recovery, when he was mostly paralyzed on his left side and was missing several of his front teeth.

“Did I want to see her so much that I’m willing to take the chance that she might see me?” he asks. Despite the fact that I was ashamed, I knew that I wanted to see her again, and I made the decision that it was worth it.

According to Woloshen, “some of the feelings started to bubble up” around the time that she started driving him to daily treatment at Neuro-IFRAH by Waleed Beverly Hills. This therapy was enabling him to walk and recover use of his limbs. At times, they would sit in the vehicle for many hours.

Towards the beginning of the year 2023, the relationship once more became amorous. Nevertheless, there were still obstacles to overcome.

She adds, “We discussed whether or not this is a good time to begin a relationship as it is currently.”

The psychological problems, such as dealing with his emotional shifts, his memory loss, and the shadow of “who I used to be,” proved to be more difficult for Bryant, who was working to rebuild his physical skills. Bryant claims that the psychological hurdles were more difficult.

According to him, music, which he used to like, now causes him to feel anxious. Lengthy social encounters have the potential to wear him out. According to him, he and Woloshen “had very open discussions about the question of whether or not we are aware of what we are signing up for.” On the other hand, I am grateful that we are working on it together.

In spite of the fact that Woloshen refers to Bryant as “the most lovable person I’ve ever met,” he seems to dismiss anybody who views her as a saintly caretaker. Rachel, Bryant’s sister, describes Woloshen as a “safe place” that provides him with “a fresh, clean slate.”

A friend’s wedding took place in Guatemala in March, and Bryant also went to the peak of the Acatenango volcano with Woloshen at his side. The pair, who presently live just a few blocks away from each other — and who remark that even their roommates are friends — have been recognizing milestones as a couple via their activities together.

Recently, in June, they returned from a vacation to Yellowstone National Park. This trip came at a time when they were beginning to define what it means to be in a “interabled” relationship, which is a connection in which one person has a handicap and the other does not.

Despite the fact that he is learning that “I can just be this new person,” Bryant is coming up in order to aid the “invisible” community of individuals who have suffered brain injuries. Bryant is continuing his treatment and rehabilitation work owing to the donations that were made via GoFundMe.

What Woloshen refers to as their adventure and what occurred to Bryant as “an insane situation” is, despite the fact that it delivered them something “amazing.”

“Who knows if prior to everything happened, if we would’ve connected the way that we did,” she continues to add. “It’s silver lining, I guess, in all of it.”

By Anna

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