Maria and Drew Brophy's Miracle
Written by SurfWriter Girls Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel
They say that love can move mountains. Love conquers all. Little did Maria Brophy know that one day she was going to need that superpower to save the life of her husband, famed surf artist Drew Brophy.
But then, Covid hit and she needed all her strength to help Drew survive a relentless case of Covid that knocked him flat in November 2021, putting him in the ICU.
"It's an insidious disease that goes after your weaknesses," Maria writes in her memoir, Covid – A Love Story. For Drew, "It went straight for his lungs. those beautiful organs that he had relied on for big wave surfing." Now, struck by the disease, he could barely breathe.
And Maria, barred by a security guard from entering the hospital, couldn't even get in to see him.
Not knowing which medical advice to trust or which drugs to try, Maria researched everything and drew on her faith to guide her. Then on Thanksgiving Day, when Drew could no longer breathe on his own, only one option was left – the ventilator. "This was the moment when part of my soul left me," Maria says, knowing that Drew might not wake up from the induced coma he would be put into for the ventilation procedure.
With so many things she wanted to say to Drew on their last phone call that day – “How badly I needed him...How I physically hurt, knowing he was suffering...to show him my soul...my deepest feelings" – instead, "all I could say was, 'I love you' over and over again." And Drew, in a deliberate voice trying to mask how weak he was, said, "I'm going to beat this."
As the days went by, family, friends and the SoCal surfing community came together bringing Maria food, helping at their art gallery, giving support, donating to GoFundMe, and saying prayers. It would all be needed, especially on "Ventilator Day 9" when the doctor asked Maria's permission to turn off the ventilator that was keeping Drew alive. She said, “No.”
Months passed and there were many twists and turns, an out-of-body experience, the quest to get on a life-saving experimental drug, disagreements over treatment, steps forward and backward, people who stood in the way and those who helped.
Maria tells it all in her memoir, sharing entries from her daily journal, the moments of despair that she couldn't let herself give into, and the hard-fought battles to get Drew the care he needed in a healthcare system overburdened by the weight of a global pandemic.
When SurfWriter Girls Sunny and Patti stopped by the Brophy Gallery recently Maria and Drew told us they don't take anything about his recovery for granted.
They’re grateful for all the help they got, positive thoughts and prayers. They couldn't have done it alone and want to give back, helping others to realize their own dreams.
They believe the love they got from others merged with their own love and generated "a force field so potent that it created a miracle."
SurfWriter Girls are hoping for one more miracle. Not just for Maria and Drew, but for everyone – that their Covid love story is made into a movie so we all can share the love.
Sunny Magdaug and Patti Kishel hold the exclusive rights to this copyrighted material. Publications wishing to reprint it may contact them at surfwriter.girls@gmail.com Individuals and non-profit groups are welcome to post it on social media sites as long as credit is given.
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