Tetraplegic student broken but unbowed - and now triumphant

By RENEE KIRIONA

Aulola Hodgkinson was told by her uncle to stay out of sight and some people in her church said she was not welcome back after a head-on collision with a drunk driver left her paralysed.

But when the 42-year-old Tongan graduates tonight with a bachelor in accounting and business management from the Open Polytechnic she will be sending those people a strong message.

"I want to prove to them that I'm not stupid, that I will not hide in my house, that I can still do what mothers do and that I can go places."

Mrs Hodgkinson's life changed forever about nine years ago after a collision with a drunk driver in her hometown of Waiuku. The result was a dislocated neck and broken spine, leaving her a tetraplegic.

After spending five months in hospital the former Nestle factory worker returned home to her husband Terry and five teenage daughters, two of whom are adopted.

Despite good support from her family and ACC, Mrs Hodgkinson said she soon realised how quiet her house, previously packed with visitors, had become.

"My uncle came to see me a year after the accident and said I should not go out in public. Some of the people from my church also came around to tell me I deserved the consequences of my actions.

"It really upset me to hear this because I didn't think I did anything wrong.

"Since then I've never gone back to church."

Despite that, Mrs Hodgkinson has invited 25 of those people to the graduation ceremony in Mt Wellington.

"My dad just lives around the corner and my brother in Auckland but I don't see them. I think they are embarrassed ...

"I still love them though but I want them to come so they see that I'm not going to waste."

Because Mrs Hodgkinson, who plans to continue on to a master's degree, does not have the use of her arms, ACC provided a computer with voice recognition software which has helped her to complete assignments.