DELTA’S MIRACLE SURVIVAL
THE SINGER OPENS UP ABOUT THE FIGHTING SPIRIT THAT’S SEEN HER THROUGH SINCE THE START
She’s had her fair share of health battles throughout her 36 years, and Delta Goodrem admits her latest one caused her to stop and look back on her life. “Losing my speech in 2018 forced me to go back to the beginning and reflect,” the singer tells WHO, after the removal of her salivary gland led to a paralysis of a nerve in her tongue.
In an exclusive extract of her book, Bridge Over Troubled Dreams, below, Goodrem reveals the story behind her traumatic start to life and her new song ‘Crash’. “This one is particularly important as it’s how I was brought into this world, fighting, which has been a common thread throughout my life,” she explains.
For a very long time, I didn’t feel like the story behind ‘Crash’ was mine to tell – I always thought it was more my mum’s than mine. But when I started recording the voice memos about my life’s journey from the very beginning (which formed the basis for this record), I realised that it is my story as well and is, in fact, a crucial part of how I came to be the person I am today.
‘Crash’ tells the story of the start of my life. It’s a moment that has been explained to me over the years in different ways by my parents but it’s something they don’t like to speak about often – it was an incredibly traumatic time for both of them.
In 1984, when my mum was almost seven months pregnant with me, she was involved in a serious car accident. As a result, I was born nearly two months premature.
The day of the crash, there was a storm raging. Mum was waiting at the traffic lights in the pouring rain and the car behind her was going too fast as they pulled up at the lights. The road was slick with rain and the driver didn’t brake fast enough – the car ploughed into the back of my mum’s, pushing her, us, directly into the oncoming traffic. My mum was seriously injured and, with me still inside, she was rushed to the hospital.
I still wasn’t due for another 10 weeks, so I was obviously not quite ready for the world yet. But as my mum was rushed into surgery, I was brought into the world; and as she underwent multiple operations, I spent the first days of my own life in the hospital’s Intensive Care Unit.
According to Mum and Dad, I looked more like a tiny frog than a baby when I was born. It was a very difficult time for both of us. Mum had multiple surgeries, both then and in the following years, including several jaw reconstructions. It was touch and go for us both and my mum and I barely even saw each other during that first little while. (Although one night, one of the beautiful ICU nurses smuggled me into Mum’s room and put me onto her chest before sneaking me back out again.)
My poor dad was going out of his mind – there was nothing he could do but watch and wait and hope.
By some miracle – and with that fighter’s spirit – both Mum and I lived to tell the tale. When we had recovered and were finally allowed to go home, Dad wanted to do something for Mum to give her strength, to commemorate that she’d made it through such a terrifying ordeal and to mark the beginning of our life together as a little family of three (my brother came later!). She’d always had aspirations to play the piano, so he went out and bought her one – and that baby grand was the first piano I would learn to play while I was growing up.
LIFE IN PAGES “Writing a book felt like a natural fit with this album,” the singer says of her writing process. “Through the book, I am able to take the reader on a behind the scenes deep dive journey of writing and recording the album.”
While there was nobody else in the car that day, I truly believe that we weren’t alone. Something spiritual happened the moment Mum’s car was pushed into the racing traffic. Like the song says, we had faith in the front seat and hope by our side.
The first moments of my life were unquestionably rocky for both myself and my mum. I came into the world literally fighting, which is a strange concept but a theme that seems to have found its way back to me again and again. I truly have been a fighter all my life. I’ve experienced a series of resets and sliding door moments over the years, which I’ve never taken for granted, and having that start to life gave me a deep connection to fate, faith and hope. Everything I’ve experienced along the way has taught me so much about myself, about kindness, about strength and tenacity.
As that final lyric says: “I thank
God for the angels, they listened when we cried.”