Penguin was a quirky member of the Bloom family. Penguin Bloom, they called her.
She enjoyed being held and, especially when she was a baby, liked sitting in the laps of people. She was also a particularly good listener. As she grew older and wiser, she would leave the Bloom home more often, but never for long, before she would return to the familiarity of her adoptive family.
Penguin was a magpie - an unconventional ‘child’. But for two years, she was like the sixth family member of the Bloom family, along with parents Samantha and Cameron and their three sons, Reuben, Noah and Oliver.
Penguin was never a pet. She was a wild bird, who had the freedom to take off whenever she wanted. But the window was always open for Penguin - an invitation she didn’t like to fly away from.
When Penguin was a fragile baby, son Noah came across the magpie at his grandmother’s place. They could see she had been injured and had flown out of her nest. They were concerned she would die if they left her there alone.
So they carefully picked her up and carried her to their home. They saved the little bird, but what they didn’t know is that the baby bird would actually be saving them.
Penguin entered their life right when a beacon of light was exactly what they needed.
In 2013, the family of five were on a holiday in Thailand. On a rooftop deck, they were taking in their surroundings when Sam leant against a dodgy railing. It collapsed, dropping Sam six metres to the ground. She was paralysed from the chest down, suffering from a spinal cord injury.
It would be seven months before Sam could return home to Sydney’s Northern Beaches, where she'd have to start her new chapter. She was in a deep depression, she tells Mamamia. Prior to her injury, she had always led an active life of surfing and running.
“I was devastated to have that taken away,” she says.
She was angry, too.
“We live at the beach and it just rubbed it in even more. I would be sitting here staring at people surf. It would make me so sad. I found it hard to get out of bed, because I had nothing to do. It was like I was on house arrest.”
Sam also felt grief for how her injury was impacting her family.
“I felt like the worst mum in the world because I wasn't the same mum. I wasn't energetic and happy. I was angry and I felt so guilty that I wrecked their lives and their childhood.”
Three months after returning home, Noah found the baby magpie. It was a profound moment, even if it did not announce itself on the spot.
The family decided to call her Penguin because she was black and white, and her walk was more like a waddle when they found her.
“We didn’t realise she’d stay with us for quite so long,” Sam laughs. “In a selfish way for me, she gave me something to look after.
“Caring for Penguin gave me the confidence that I actually was capable of looking after something, which I didn't think I was.”
When Sam's kids were at school and her husband was at work, she loved having conversations with Penguin. Sam provided a shoulder for Penguin to rest on, and Penguin provided an ear for Sam to talk to. For each other, they were the source of strength they needed.
“I spoke to her about how much I hated this, with what had happened. I felt bad for Cam because he had so much to deal with; obviously with me and looking after the kids and work too. So I didn't want to constantly complain to him. So I would just complain to Penguin instead.”
The kids loved their new sibling too. Sam’s favourite memory is from her eldest son’s birthday, when he turned 13. At the time, they hadn’t seen Penguin for about six weeks and were worried something might have happened to her.
“Imagine if Penguin came back today,” Sam remembers joking with her son.
“We went to my mum's for lunch and Cam got a phone call from a lady saying, ‘I think Penguin is inside my house.’ Cam drove over and it was Penguin. So he picked her up and brought her home. It was the coolest surprise.”
Cam is a professional photographer and has captured Penguin’s candid moments with the family.
From Penguin cuddling the boys in bed to Penguin pecking Sam on the lips, and casually sitting on their heads, the photographer captured the simple but extraordinary moments and shared them to an Instagram page that went viral.
In 2016, Penguin Bloom was published and became a best-selling book, before it was optioned for a Hollywood film of the same name. Academy Award nominee Naomi Watts plays Sam and Andrew Lincoln from The Walking Dead plays Cam. The film will be released in January 2021.
The movie, filmed last year, was shot inside the family’s real home in the beachside suburb of Newport.
Sam, who has seen the movie now a couple of times, says they’ve kept the story “really real”.
“She looks very sad and very angry a lot of the time. A lot of the scenes really did happen.”
Sam was often on set, she shares, because Watts wanted to ensure she was playing her character authentically.
“I used to write stuff down on my phone and it was very dark and there was a lot of hate in it. I gave it to Naomi to read, so that she knew how I was feeling at the time. She said that really helped her just to get inside my head.”
Whilst Penguin continues to be a metaphorical light in their lives, they haven’t seen her since 2015. Sam had been working hard on her rehabilitation and in 2015 had made the Australian paracanoe team for the world championships in Milan. She went over to compete, with Cam and their sons leaving three weeks after her.
“Penguin flew away the night before they left and we've never seen her again. I think she came at the perfect time and left at the perfect time, because I was in a much better headspace…
“I hope that she started her own little family.”
Sam dreams about a day where she can walk again. Right now, there is no cure for spinal cord injuries. However, there have been promising advancements in medical research recently and physicians and scientists are hopeful that a cure is within reach. There is hope that the Hollywood film will raise much-needed awareness for the importance of their research. People can donate to SpinalCure Australia here. Click
“You have no idea what a cure would mean,” Sam explains. “It would be life-changing for millions of people. I have struggled with this injury ever since it happened and I was 41 when I had my accident. When I see young people with a spinal cord injury, it is just so devastating.”
Although there have been undeniable silver linings, Sam doesn’t see her story as one with a happy ending. And with her story now turned into a movie, she had a request: “I don’t want the ending to be, 'Life is great now'.”
Every day is still hard, Sam emphasises.
“I still get envious of seeing people run on the beach and just living a normal life. I can't say I love it. I'll never really accept it, but I guess it gets a little bit easier as time goes on.”
One thing that continues to bring her joy is magpies. As she speaks to us, she shares the family have just taken in another baby bird, who they’ve called Van.
“He's three months old and he can't fly at all. His wings are really brittle. So we're just feeding him up, hopefully making him strong so that he can eventually fly away.”
You can donate to SpinalCure Australia here. Click 《《
Penguin Bloom is out in cinemas in Australia on January 21, 2021.
Being forced to slow down quickly highlighted that we had all been going way too hard. Did I really need to be following my pre-pregnancy fitness program, volunteering at the school, running the girls to one activity after another, all while I was growing a human? We are expected to soldier through every condition that pregnancy throws at us including all day sickness, sciatica, exhaustion, anxiety, high blood pressure, constipation, insomnia, and just the sheer exhaustion. Minus the good meds and booze. I was diagnosed with a low-lying placenta, so had to add hanky panky to the long list of do-not-dos. Any single one of those conditions warrants tea and sympathy in everyday life. It seems that it's only pregnant women who are not afforded that luxury, and are instead urged to count their blessings (as they count their hemorrhoids). I regret pushing through and failing to honour my body for its miracle work during my first two pregnancies.
Everybody knows the belly becomes public property the minute a mother starts to show. But being in lockdown almost forced me to have a Kylie Jenner style secret pregnancy, and I didn't miss the comments from perfect strangers about the size of my bump and whether or not I should be carrying my grocery bags. As a mum of two girls, I had braced myself for hearing "bet you're hoping for a boy," approximately six million times over the space of nine months (or even grosser, "bet dad is hoping for a boy"). Instead, I only heard it about three million times from friends and family, but I'm thankful my girls didn't have to hear it every time we popped into the shops. I also didn't have to worry about pregnancy FOMO. There were no Saturday nights spent on the couch watching Instagram stories of my friends going out for drinks (and I didn't have to invent excuses to not attend those events).
sucked in and out of a plastic cone in polite company. My son scored the most breastmilk out of all my children because instead of entertaining guests, I spent the first few days and weeks topless, relaxing into pumping and feeding, while bingeing The Affair on Stan.
More benefits presented themselves when I brought my newborn home and restrictions began to ease. In the past I'd asked visitors to use the hand sanitiser we'd placed strategically at the front door, and limited the amount of cuddles.
In 2020, guests brought their own hand sanny, left the snotty toddlers at home, and rescheduled if they had been in contact with anyone under the weather. We should definitely keep doing that - not just the basic hygiene - but supporting new mothers after the birth marathon by not putting them in a position where they need to beg people to be cautious around their babies.
Somehow, my pandemic pregnancy ended up being the one that holds the most special place in my heart. The challenges were immense but what I recall most strongly was the feeling of closeness with my little family. We got the time together we needed to reconnect, and I learned to be a little bit gentler with the body that has given me three beautiful children.
Penguin entered their life right when a beacon of light was exactly what they needed.
In 2013, the family of five were on a holiday in Thailand. On a rooftop deck, they were taking in their surroundings when Sam leant against a dodgy railing. It collapsed, dropping Sam six metres to the ground. She was paralysed from the chest down, suffering from a spinal cord injury.
It would be seven months before Sam could return home to Sydney’s Northern Beaches, where she'd have to start her new chapter. She was in a deep depression, she tells . Prior to her injury, she had always led an active life of surfing and
“I was devastated to have that taken away,” she says.
She was angry, too.
“We live at the beach and it just rubbed it in even more. I would be sitting here staring at people surf. It would make me so sad. I found it hard to get out of bed, because I had nothing to do. It was like I was on house arrest.”
Sam also felt grief for how her injury was impacting her family.
“I felt like the worst mum in the world because I wasn't the same mum. I wasn't energetic and happy. I was angry and I felt so guilty that I wrecked their lives and their childhood.”
Three months after returning home, Noah found the baby magpie. It was a profound moment, even if it did not announce itself on the spot.
The family decided to call her Penguin because she was black and white, and her walk was more like a waddle when they found her.
“We didn’t realise she’d stay with us for quite so long,” Sam laughs. “In a selfish way for me, she gave me something to look after.
“Caring for Penguin gave me the confidence that I actually was capable of looking after something, which I didn't think I was.”
When Sam's kids were at school and her husband was at work, she loved having conversations with Penguin. Sam provided a shoulder for Penguin to rest on, and Penguin provided an ear for Sam to talk to. For each other, they were the source of strength they needed.
“I spoke to her about how much I hated this, with what had happened. I felt bad for Cam because he had so much to deal with; obviously with me and looking after the kids and work too. So I didn't want to constantly complain to him. So I would just complain to Penguin instead.”
The kids loved their new sibling too. Sam’s favourite memory is from her eldest son’s birthday, when he turned 13. At the time, they hadn’t seen Penguin for about six weeks and were worried something might have happened to her.
“Imagine if Penguin came back today,” Sam remembers joking with her son.
“We went to my mum's for lunch and Cam got a phone call from a lady saying, ‘I think Penguin is inside my house.’ Cam drove over and it was Penguin. So he picked her up and brought her home. It was the coolest surprise.”
Cam is a professional photographer and has captured Penguin’s candid moments with the family.
From Penguin cuddling the boys in bed to Penguin pecking Sam on the lips, and casually sitting on their heads, the photographer captured the simple but extraordinary moments and shared them to an Instagram page that went viral.
In 2016, Penguin Bloom was published and became a best-selling book, before it was optioned for a Hollywood film of the same name. Academy Award nominee Naomi Watts plays Sam and Andrew Lincoln from The Walking Dead plays Cam. The film will be released in January 2021.
The movie, filmed last year, was shot inside the family’s real home in the beachside suburb of Newport.
Sam, who has seen the movie now a couple of times, says they’ve kept the story “really real”.
“She looks very sad and very angry a lot of the time. A lot of the scenes really did happen.”
Sam was often on set, she shares, because Watts wanted to ensure she was playing her character authentically.
“I used to write stuff down on my phone and it was very dark and there was a lot of hate in it. I gave it to Naomi to read, so that she knew how I was feeling at the time. She said that really helped her just to get inside my head.”
Whilst Penguin continues to be a metaphorical light in their lives, they haven’t seen her since 2015. Sam had been working hard on her rehabilitation and in 2015 had made the Australian paracanoe team for the world championships in Milan. She went over to compete, with Cam and their sons leaving three weeks after her.
“Penguin flew away the night before they left and we've never seen her again. I think she came at the perfect time and left at the perfect time, because I was in a much better headspace…
“I hope that she started her own little family.”
Sam Bloom with Penguin. Image: Cameron Bloom.
Sam dreams about a day where she can walk again. Right now, there is no cure for spinal cord injuries. However, there have been promising advancements in medical research recently and physicians and scientists are hopeful that a cure is within reach. There is hope that the Hollywood film will raise much-needed awareness for the importance of their research. People can donate to SpinalCure Australia here.
“You have no idea what a cure would mean,” Sam explains. “It would be life-changing for millions of people. I have struggled with this injury ever since it happened and I was 41 when I had my accident. When I see young people with a spinal cord injury, it is just so devastating.”
Although there have been undeniable silver linings, Sam doesn’t see her story as one with a happy ending. And with her story now turned into a movie, she had a request: “I don’t want the ending to be, 'Life is great now'.”
Every day is still hard, Sam emphasises.
“I still get envious of seeing people run on the beach and just living a normal life. I can't say I love it. I'll never really accept it, but I guess it gets a little bit easier as time goes on.”
One thing that continues to bring her joy is magpies. As she speaks to us, she shares the family have just taken in another baby bird, who they’ve called Van.
“He's three months old and he can't fly at all. His wings are really brittle. So we're just feeding him up, hopefully making him strong so that he can eventually fly away.”
You can donate to SpinalCure Australia here.
Penguin Bloom is out in cinemas in Australia on January 21, 2021.
Eight years ago, Sam Bloom was enjoying a family holiday in Thailand with her husband Cameron and three sons, Rueben, Noah and Oliver.
“Cam and I have always loved travelling, so we thought we wanted to take the boys overseas,” the 49-year-old told SBS News at her home in Sydney's northern beaches.
“We were about four days into our holiday and one of the kids spotted a stairway up to an observation deck, so we all went up.”
They were staying in a tiny village near the ocean, and from the two-story balcony, the tropical vista stretched as far as the eye could see.
To this day, Sam wishes she had never seen that breathtaking view.
“I leant on a railing and it had dry rot,” she said.
As the safety barricade fell away, so did Sam, falling six metres onto the concrete below.
She shattered her spine at the T6 and T7 vertebrae, fractured her skull in several places, and lay in a burgeoning pool of blood - but she would not remember a thing.
“I don’t even remember going up the stairs. My first memory was probably a day or two after and my mum and sister flew over.”
“I remember saying to them ‘what are you guys doing here’ and that was my first memory, I had no idea where I was.”
For Cameron though, that day will be forever etched into his memory.
“It was an incredible shock,” the 49-year-old said.
“It was visually horrific and incredibly scary because none of us really knew whether Sam would survive.
“Just for the boys to see their mum laying there gasping for breath and bleeding, it was something you never forget.”
None of us really knew whether Sam would survive.
- CAMERON BLOOM
Three weeks later, Sam was flown home from Thailand and she began a gruelling path of rehabilitation.
“The doctors [in Thailand] just kept saying 'it's spinal shock', so I just assumed in six weeks I’d be back to normal,” she said.
“[In Australia] I had an MRI and that’s when the doctor came up and so bluntly said, 'you’ll never walk again'. I think I spent the first month crying.”
Coming to terms with her new reality, Sam fell into a depression, grieving an old life and an old sense of self that would need to be remoulded.
“For Sam, it was really difficult just facing the reality of being back in her home that she loved and being in the wheelchair,” Cameron said.
“Sam just became incredibly depressed and felt isolated.
“It was around that time that we found Penguin and there was this incredible change of atmosphere in the house.”
Meeting a magpie
It's hard to believe, but Penguin, a young, injured magpie, would become an important part of the Bloom household, and Sam's next chapter.
The family took in the ball of black and white fluff after it had fallen out of its nest. It was fragile and needed care, giving Sam a renewed sense of purpose.
“For the first year I almost felt like I was under house arrest, I couldn’t go out, I couldn’t drive I was stuck at home,” Sam said.
“Having Penguin here for company and companionship was just amazing.
“She would always be on my lap or on my shoulder, she was with me all the time so I would talk to her continuously … whinge to her, I should say. She was the perfect listener; she was never judgemental"
The true story behind Penguin Bloom - a 'raw and authentic' representation of disability
An accident in Thailand left Australian Sam Bloom paralysed. The unlikely arrival of an injured magpie helped her recovery. Her story has now been made into a film and is opening up a conversation about the representation of acquired disability on screen.
Eight years ago, Sam Bloom was enjoying a family holiday in Thailand with her husband Cameron and three sons, Rueben, Noah and Oliver.
“Cam and I have always loved travelling, so we thought we wanted to take the boys overseas,” the 49-year-old told SBS News at her home in Sydney's northern beaches.
“We were about four days into our holiday and one of the kids spotted a stairway up to an observation deck, so we all went up.”
They were staying in a tiny village near the ocean, and from the two-story balcony, the tropical vista stretched as far as the eye could see.
To this day, Sam wishes she had never seen that breathtaking view.
“I leant on a railing and it had dry rot,” she said.
As the safety barricade fell away, so did Sam, falling six metres onto the concrete below.
She shattered her spine at the T6 and T7 vertebrae, fractured her skull in several places, and lay in a burgeoning pool of blood - but she would not remember a thing.
“I don’t even remember going up the stairs. My first memory was probably a day or two after and my mum and sister flew over.”
“I remember saying to them ‘what are you guys doing here’ and that was my first memory, I had no idea where I was.”
For Cameron though, that day will be forever etched into his memory.
“It was an incredible shock,” the 49-year-old said.
“It was visually horrific and incredibly scary because none of us really knew whether Sam would survive.
“Just for the boys to see their mum laying there gasping for breath and bleeding, it was something you never forget.”
None of us really knew whether Sam would survive.
- CAMERON BLOOM
Three weeks later, Sam was flown home from Thailand and she began a gruelling path of rehabilitation.
“The doctors [in Thailand] just kept saying 'it's spinal shock', so I just assumed in six weeks I’d be back to normal,” she said.
“[In Australia] I had an MRI and that’s when the doctor came up and so bluntly said, 'you’ll never walk again'. I think I spent the first month crying.”
Coming to terms with her new reality, Sam fell into a depression, grieving an old life and an old sense of self that would need to be remoulded.
“For Sam, it was really difficult just facing the reality of being back in her home that she loved and being in the wheelchair,” Cameron said.
“Sam just became incredibly depressed and felt isolated.
“It was around that time that we found Penguin and there was this incredible change of atmosphere in the house.”
Meeting a magpie
It's hard to believe, but Penguin, a young, injured magpie, would become an important part of the Bloom household, and Sam's next chapter.
The family took in the ball of black and white fluff after it had fallen out of its nest. It was fragile and needed care, giving Sam a renewed sense of purpose.
“For the first year I almost felt like I was under house arrest, I couldn’t go out, I couldn’t drive I was stuck at home,” Sam said.
“Having Penguin here for company and companionship was just amazing.
“She would always be on my lap or on my shoulder, she was with me all the time so I would talk to her continuously … whinge to her, I should say. She was the perfect listener; she was never judgemental.”Cameron, a photographer, documented the family’s relationship with the bird, which was later made into a book written alongside author Bradley Trevor Greive.
“We always had hope that we’d help Penguin get strong enough to live a free life and be released into the wild,” Cameron said.
“Sam’s recovery is more mental than physical, and around that time, Sam started getting back into exercise again.
“There was a real shift, when Penguin arrived on the scene everything changed, for the better.”
It's this adjustment to life with an acquired disability that is captured in the film Penguin Bloom, starring Naomi Watts, and released this month.
The film portrays Sam's life before and after her accident.
“It's a big responsibility because you've got to play that story in the most authentic, responsible way,” Watts said at a recent junket.
“Getting the script right was super important, telling the story from Sam’s perspective but how it connects to the family and how the bird became the glue.
“To find that balance of hope, to find that balance of courage and how one family repairs, that’s a great story to tell.”
Getting it right
With the representation of disability on screen a key to getting the story right, Sam was involved in the film's production to ensure her realities weren’t glossed over.
"I wanted it to be raw and authentic, no sugar-coating," Sam said.
"I remember when I came home, you think ‘I’m the only one’, and it’s lonely. I think grief is quite lonely."
To help the cast and crew gain an understanding of her situation, Sam offered an invaluable insight.
“Sam Bloom kept a diary that was really very personal and was only ever for herself - and she shared it with us,” said director Glendyn Ivin.
“In some ways, that was the real key to knowing what it was like to be in that situation, to be in a depression and have a physical disability that she had found herself with.”
The film's sensitive portrayal of what it's like to live with a spinal cord injury has received praise.
No comments:
Post a Comment