It’s no secret that dating can be emotionally taxing.
Being ghosted when dating feels particularly bad because it combines the sting of rejection with the confusion of ambiguity.
When someone you're interested in suddenly ceases all communication without any explanation, it leaves you in a state of uncertainty and self-doubt.
The lack of closure can lead to endless overthinking, as you replay interactions in your mind, trying to pinpoint what went wrong. This abrupt silence also feels deeply disrespectful, as it disregards the emotional investment you've made and can make you feel devalued and unworthy.
The unresolved nature of ghosting can heighten anxiety and stress, making it challenging to move on and potentially impacting your ability to trust and open up in future relationships.
That said, when the woman at the center of this particular story didn't hear back from a guy after dating for a few weeks, she assumed that she was being ghosted.
However, she later discovered the heartbreaking truth on Instagram.
Haley Woloshen and Cody Bryant met during a vacation in Hawaii in 2022 and quickly realized they both lived in Los Angeles, sparking a connection.
After a few weeks together, Cody stopped responding, and Haley thought he had ghosted her.
In her quest to understand his sudden disappearance, she stumbled upon a GoFundMe campaign set up by his family.
Cody had been in a severe accident, hit by a car while riding a moped in Ibiza in September 2022, resulting in a coma and traumatic brain injury.
Haley learned about his condition through Instagram.
After several months of recovery at the Rancho Rehab Center in LA, they reconnected.
However, it felt like a scene from 50 First Dates, as Cody had no memory of their time together before the accident.
“I actually had no memory of our pre-accident connection,” he shared on TikTok. Despite this, they started to reconnect.
“Neither of us expected it, but feelings started to build,” he wrote. “I joke that she won me over a second time.”
The accident left Cody with hemiplegia, requiring extensive speech, occupational, and physical therapy.
Defying doctors' concerns about his ability to walk again, Cody recently completed a challenging two-day trek up a volcano in Guatemala. “Each step was a victory, and reaching the top meant more than I can express in words,” he said in an update on his GoFundMe page in April.
“I am determined to continue to summit mountains like this (literally and figuratively) in my recovery.”
So far, a staggering $151,400 has been raised on the GoFundMe page.
Although he has no memory of much of the year before his accident, he credits Haley for her incredible support during his recovery and for being instrumental in his recovery.
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