- Couple Kendra and Corey survived a motorbike crash
- Tragically, Kendra, who was pregnant, lost their baby boy
- Later, they welcomed a rainbow baby and are now planning their wedding
Here she shares her story
Peeling oranges, my partner Corey removed the pith before handing me a piece.
‘You’re the king of pampering,’ I teased.
It was January 2021 and, aged 26, I was five months pregnant with our first child together. Whenever I came home from my retail job, Corey took off my shoes and rubbed my feet. If I craved melons, he’d run off to the shops and get some.
Corey, then 32, and I met through friends a year earlier and been inseparable since. He moved in with me and my daughter, Patience, 11, and son, Caasi, five.
‘Can you make sure it’s a brother?’ Caasi asked.
One afternoon when the kids were at school,we got a call from someone asking for help after his car ran out of fuel and he got stranded in Levin, 30 minutes away from our place near Wellington, NZ.
‘A truck’s trailer tilted over.’
So we hopped on Corey’s Harley-Davidson, and were on the highway when a truck’s trailer tilted over.
It hit Corey’s arm and suddenly sent us flying.
As we were sliding, the zip ripped off my knee-high leather boots and I knew my right leg was seriously hurt. When I finally came to a stop, I was lying in the middle of the highway.
Have I lost my leg? I wondered, looking at the broken motorbike pieces around me. Meanwhile, Corey was about 20 metres away, dragging himself to me using his left arm.
‘Are you badly hurt?’ I asked, worried.
‘My darling,’ he said. ‘I’m so sorry.’
‘It’s okay. It’s not your fault,’ I replied.
Immediately, other motorists came to help.
‘I’m pregnant,’ I cried, going in and out of consciousness.
Within an hour medics flew us to Wellington Hospital where my Mum, Pa’i, and dad, Shayne, both 56, sister Shaya, 31, and brother, D’angelo, 19, rushed to be by my side.
The baby was alive, but the bones in my right leg were shattered and I’d need surgery.
‘Doctors amputated his right leg above the knee.’
Corey and I spoke on the phone from our beds in different wards.
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‘I lost my leg,’ he said, explaining doctors had amputated his right leg above the knee.
‘What about your arm?’ I asked, devastated for him.
‘It’s still there,’ he replied.
He had a metal rod from his shoulder to his elbow.
‘We’re going to be okay,’ I added. I didn’t care if he had a leg or not, as long as we were together.
Corey told me it was a freak accident with no-one at fault, as we weren’t speeding or driving rashly.
Two days later, nurses wheeled my bed into his room and we held hands.
‘Hi babe,’ I said, and we both started crying. Then, Corey stared into my eyes.
‘Will you marry me?’ he asked. ‘We got a second chance and now I can’t bear to be apart from you.’
‘Yes,’ I said.
Later that day in theatre, I had a second surgery. A metal plate was put in my femur, screws in my knee and ankle and a rod in my tibia, saving my leg.
But in recovery, doctors told me our baby’s heart had stopped and he’d passed away. It was beyond heartbreaking. Corey and I sobbed together.
Shaya suggested calling our baby Taonga, meaning precious gift. I gave birth to him with Corey holding my hand. He slept between us for a day and night, his little head rested on a teddy gifted by the hospital.
When the kids saw us, they were heartbroken.
In the next few weeks, Corey had three surgeries on his arm while I had six on my leg. At home, D’angelo cared for the kids.
A month later, we were discharged. I brought the teddy home and sat it by my bed, wearing a feather korowai – traditional Maori cloak – Shaya had made.
‘Corey and I were both wheelchair-bound.’
Corey and I were both wheelchair-bound, as I had months of recovery to walk again, and Corey had to adapt to life with one leg.
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The kids helped feed Corey as his arm was bandaged, and pushed us around the house.
‘We love you,’ they said. Corey cried in his sleep as he battled phantom pains, but slowly he pushed through.
I had five more surgeries, and suffered from night terrors and sleepless nights crying for our lost angel.
A year later, by March 2022, I could finally walk and we decided to get married as I could walk down the aisle myself. Corey got a prosthetic leg and was on his feet too.
Continuing to recover and busy with life, it was 2024 before we began planning the wedding.
But then I discovered I was pregnant. At 20 weeks we found out it was a boy.
‘Our boy is coming home,’ Corey said, crying.
I felt Taonga’s presence during the pregnancy. ‘Please watch over your baby brother,’ I said.
In February 2025, I gave birth to our rainbow baby Cassius. Weighing 3.4kg, he had beautiful blue eyes.
‘He’s going to heal us,’ Corey said, kissing him.
Patience, now 15, and Caasi, nine, adore Cassius and help change and feed him, and put him to bed.
Cassius, 11 months, says ‘mum’ and ‘dad’ and loves dancing around.
The kids push him around in his little car, play with him, or take him for walks. He rules the house!
‘Cassius will be our ring bearer.’
We plan to get married in November 2026, with Cassius as our ring bearer.
I’m so gratitude for this second chance at life, and for my precious family.
