More than 50 years after her L2 vertebrae was damaged by a car accident on Haast Pass, the French national returns to Christchurch aiming to reconnect with a nurse and Cantabrians who assisted her recovery from spinal injuries.
Vallette, who turns 70 in May, is a realist, knowing many of those who helped have passed away – like ham (amateur) radio operator Arnold Dacombe who was buried in Springfield in 1991.
Despite not being able to find her helpers via social media, she is pressing ahead with her dream of hosting a pub meal, or similar, in the city next month.
“I’m confident if they are still alive and hear my story they will get in touch,” Vallette told The Star.
“Thanks to them I fully recovered and had a good life.”
Vallette reaches Auckland on February 14, and heads south with the intention of travelling the route where near-tragedy struck on June 12, 1972.
She was barely 18 and only had a driver licence for six weeks when she left Wellington to explore the South Island with a friend of a friend, Neal Adams, after studying at Victoria University.
Vallette accepts she was unprepared for driving a Morris Mini on what was then a winding dirt and gravel length of SH6 adjacent to the Makarora River in treacherous weather.
Although born in France, Vallette moved to Noumea, New Caledonia, as a 7-year-old, so the climatic conditions were foreign.
“I’d never seen snow, I didn’t know what ice was, apart from in fruit juice,” she admitted.
“There was a very sharp curve on the right. The car skidded on ice and went down a ravine.”
Adams was thrown from the vehicle but managed to climb 60 metres to flag down assistance.
“I knew I had a problem with my spine, I couldn’t feel my limbs, I understood that,” she said.
Rescuers cut her free and then a snowstorm prevented her from being airlifted to Christchurch Hospital, the journey by ambulance taking a painstaking 24-to-36 hours.
Vallette also has vivid recollections of the spinal unit, ward 13B – and the love and support of locals, who read of her plight in The Star.
“By the time I arrived in hospital there had been a newspaper article saying a young French girl with no family here had been in a car crash.
“Soon my part of the room was covered in flowers. People wanted to comfort me. That’s the sort of thing you cannot forget.”
Vallette also remembers names, and hopes hers will jog memories for Doherty and Jorgensen family members and an acquaintance of Dacombe, Kay Perkins.
It was Dacombe who decided, without prompting, to contact a radio operator in Noumea to alert Vallette’s father Rene.
Vallette stayed with Jamie and Helen Doherty, and their children Rosemary and Phillip, when she was an outpatient.
Ross Jorgensen, son of Shirley, was a Christchurch-based friend of Adams who visited her in hospital.
She met Adams once when he was in London but they lost touch decades ago.
Vallette is also keen to find young nurse Sue Osborne, who would strum Cat Stevens (now Yusuf Islam) and James Taylor songs on her guitar.
“I was lying flat, I couldn’t do anything but I could chat and sing,” she said.
Osborne’s bedside manner encapsulated Vallette’s care by nursing staff.
“They gave me time and friendship. No one ever made me feel like I would remain in that state. They never killed the hope.”
Doctors were not as optimistic warning she would, at best, leave hospital on crutches.
“I couldn’t believe it, when you’re 18 you just want to live. I had the conviction I would walk out,” she said.
“After three months I felt a movement, very small, in the big toe on my right foot. The doctors and physiotherapists all agreed I’d been dreaming, but it was a sign the nerves were healing.”
Vallette astounded doctors by only needing a back brace when she was discharged in December, 1972.
Happily she reports no lingering issues with her spine, pointing out: “I managed to give birth to three children, usually it’s rather hard on the back when you’re pregnant but I had no problem in that way.”
Christchurch’s spinal unit opened at Christchurch Hospital in 1964 and transferred to its current location at Burwood Hospital in 1979.
