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THE-OCONEE-LEADER

Model, actress and Athens Academy graduate tells of fight for survival in new book

Wayne Ford
wford@onlineathens.com
Katherine Arnold Wolf became well enough to have a second child in 2015.

Eight years ago Katherine Arnold Wolf was living in California where she was the mother of an infant, a wife, and a working model who was auditioning for roles in movies. And then life changed in a split second.

Unknown to her there was a defect in her brain that silently waited until at age 26 it ruptured causing massive bleeding. She screamed and the light went out.

When the day came that she awoke, she had a body that would not perform. One eye was blind, one ear deaf. She could not walk or talk. Yet she was alive much to the surprise of her doctors.

"She is a medical miracle," Wolf's mother, Kim Arnold of Athens, said last week.

The story of how Katherine Wolf, a 2000 graduate of Athens Academy, survived near death is told in a book "Hope Heals" that will officially be released on April 26. However, it will be available in Athens on Saturday during a book signing event held for Wolf and her husband, Jay, at Athens Academy from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. during Festival Days.

The book signing was paired with a trip to Athens where the couple will speak Sunday at Athens Church on Huntington Road to deliver their "message of hope." The services are 9:30 a.m. and again at 11 a.m.

Wolf grew up in Athens, the daughter of Brooks and Kim Arnold, where she excelled in the theater in high school. She then went to Samford University in Alabama, where the vivacious woman with blond hair continued her excellence on stage. At the urging of others, she entered a beauty pageant and won Miss Samford. She represented the university in the Miss Alabama pageant and was second runner up among 80 contestants.

In college she dated Jay Wolf, the son of a Montgomery pastor, and they married after college. The young couple moved to Malibu, Calif., where he went to law school and she busied herself with modeling assignments, once working as Heidi Klum's body double, and continuing to audition for acting roles.

The couple had a son, James. He was only 6 months old when she suffered an Arteriovenous Malformation, called an AVM rupture that caused bleeding in her brain.

Kim Arnold was at home when she received word that her daughter was hospitalized in ICU. She called a family friend, Dr. Howard Abney, and asked if she should fly out that night. Abney told her to leave now.

She arrived to find dozens of people in the lobby waiting and praying for her daughter. The surgery took 16 hours at the UCLA Hospital in Los Angeles.

The surgeon "told my son-in-law going into the surgery he didn't think she would live, but he would try to save her," Arnold recalled.

After surgery, Dr. Nestor Gonzales, told the family Katherine would have "deficits" that might keep her in a vegetative state because a portion of her brain was removed and several nerves were cut. The tired surgeon went home, but within hours nurses summoned him back to the hospital.

Gonzales went into the room and took Katherine's hand.

"She squeezed his hand and tears started running down his face because he couldn't believe she survived. She was there - inside," Arnold said.

Katherine was in the hospital for two years followed by years of rehabilitation as she relearned to talk and handle daily functions.

The members of the couple's church in L.A. were supportive, Arnold said, and many were involved in the entertainment industry including writers, directors and actors.

"Because of where they were and because Katherine was an actress, their story got more exposure than it would have otherwise," Arnold said. When she regained the ability to communicate, Katherine and her husband began visiting churches and telling their story of love and hope.

"She is fulfilling that dream she had as a young girl that 'I will use the gifts that God has given me to help others,'" Arnold said.

In 2015, Zondervan, a division of the publisher Harper Collins, contacted the couple asking to publish their story in a book, according to Arnold. The book is now ready for release.

The crisis that claimed Wolf also affected those close to her, including her parents, husband and sisters.

"There isn't a day I don't feel a sense of loss," Arnold said, explaining that when the tragedy fell, the family stayed "focused on staying positive for Katherine."

"The full impact of what happened did not really hit me until years later and I had to go through the grieving," she said. "I miss her voice more than anything. She had an amazing voice. A singing voice. I miss the simple things."

In Christmas 2014, Arnold received a wrapped gift from her daughter and son-in-law. As she lifted gift cards and such presents from the package, she came across a baby's stocking.

"I said 'Oh that's a cute little Christmas arrangement. She said 'Mom look inside.' I looked inside and it's the ultrasound of the baby. I screamed so loud and started sobbing. That was one of the most joyful moments of my life."

Today, little John Nestor Wolf is a healthy 9-month-old boy.

Follow writer Wayne Ford on Facebook at https://www.facebook.com/WayneFordABH.