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Whilst living in Thailand in 2018, I made the most amazing connections with really special souls from everywhere around the world. There was no connection much like my one with Astryd. Astryd was 18 from California, and from the first moment we met, I felt a desire to be around her every day. After I would do my morning job, she would meet me for brunch and we would enjoy the day together. We would eat delicious food all day and dance with fire together in the night. We became best friends. When she called me from near the border to Myanmar, she told me that she’d had a scooter accident on her visa renewal journey. A truck had run her off the road which led to her coming off her scooter and breaking her foot. She also gained a huge abrasion on her hip. I talked her through it. Told her that the worst was over, she would go to the hospital, get fixed up and come back to town and heal. She was safe. Little did I know that this was only the beginning. When she returned to Pai in northern Thailand where we lived together, her health was concerning. Her foot was in a cast, she was on crutches and complained every moment about pain in her abdomen. Three days later, she was a lot worse. She found she couldn’t eat anything, couldn’t drink which meant she couldn’t have any of the mediation the hospital had given her for pain. Astryd couldn’t move from her bed without the help of two people. We helped her to the shower and bathroom as much as we could and at day 4, my worry for her reached its peak. I went to her and told her, quite seriously, that I felt that she should take the four hour trip down the Chiang Mai to go to the hospital and find out what was going on. Being an 18-year-old, Astryd was stubborn and didn’t like people telling her what to do. However, our friendship and love for each other was strong and solid enough for her to heed my advice. She was sick. And she needed medical intervention now. She took my advice and that afternoon, I put her in a private taxi to take her straight to the hospital. As she drove away in the taxi, I honestly wondered if I’d ever see her again. Two days later, she had already had surgery and her dad was on his way to Thailand to go to the hospital. Astryd told me that she had a flesh-eating bacteria called necrotizing fasciitis in her abdominal wall. I immediately called my brother-in-law who is a doctor in Australia to find out more. He told me that when people contract this in their foot, they usually amputate because it’s so aggressive. It existing in her stomach, my brother-in-law told me that this whole situation could end incredibly badly. This was serious. And this was scary. Over the next two months, I spoke to Astryd as much as I could. She stayed in the Thai hospital for those months, going under many, many surgeries to keep cutting out the infection that was eating her. Finally, after those months, she was able to fly back to California and undergo further treatment there to aid in her healing. This included psychological treatment to deal with the trauma she experienced. After so many surgeries her body needed a lot of rest and love. And four months after she left in that taxi from Pai, her wound was closed and she was declared infection-free. Her foot had fully healed and she was ready to continue to explore. Being the amazing and brave woman she is, she went back to Pai and has been happily living there ever since. I went to visit her last year and cried with happiness in her embrace. Every day, I am grateful that we exist in each others lives. Although we live far away from each other, our love for each other is still just as strong.