Just lately, Chryssi and Steve Zeleny (pictured above), who traveled on Star Delight within the Caribbean final fall, wrote us a letter that, as a father of two daughters, I’ve not been in a position to neglect.
Kate By way of, one in all their 4 youngsters, newly married and much more newly pregnant, was in a horrific site visitors accident that just about claimed her life (and that might have severely threatened her unborn child). The infant was unhurt. Kate, nonetheless, suffered traumatic mind accidents. with the assistance of her husband, Josh, her mom, father, sisters and brother, and her medical staff, she underwent important surgical procedures and remedy over a 12 months to be taught to stroll once more, to speak once more. She gave beginning to Isaac, a wholesome boy, and he or she’s reclaiming her vitality.
For Chryssi and Steve, their last-minute cruise on Star Delight turned out to be greater than a getaway. It was a significant voyage in methods they didn’t count on, from randomly assembly a fellow traveler whose ebook on grief and therapeutic mirrored their very own household journey to Steve’s saving the lifetime of a stranger. I’m grateful to Chryssi and Steve for giving us permission to share their experiences, each in life and on their particular voyage.
I’ve at all times believed that doing good issues will deliver good issues, and the Zelenys’ experiences bear that out. Chryssi and Steve are a chapter in my life that I’ll always remember. I hope you may be as touched by their letter, just under, as we have now been right here at Windstar.
—Chris Prelog, president of Windstar Cruises
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Expensive Mr. Prelog,
I’m writing to precise my honest gratitude for our first expertise crusing with Windstar aboard the Star Delight this previous October. To be trustworthy, reserving the journey was a last-minute resolution for us, and it proved to be precisely what we would have liked in our lives.
In April of 2024, we celebrated our youngest daughter Kate’s dream wedding ceremony and commenced planning our “empty nest” life. However in November 2024, our world got here to a crashing halt. We obtained a name from the hospital chaplain–the decision that each dad or mum dreads: “We now have motive to consider that your daughter Kate has been in a horrific accident with life-threatening accidents.”
After we reached the hospital, we discovered our child lady clinging to life in probably the most vital state a affected person can endure. She was in a coma, struggling catastrophic mind accidents, Extreme DAI, Extreme TBI and a number of strokes–together with damaged bones all through her shattered physique and intensive inside bleeding. Maybe most harrowing of all, Kate was pregnant. Amidst the chaos of emergency surgical procedures and the determined want for a miracle, the one sound of hope was the faint and distant beat of her child’s coronary heart. We lived at her bedside for days, holding onto hope when it was misplaced based on the medical workers. We refused to go away as we watched the inconceivable occur.
Slowly, we noticed miracles take form and after about three weeks of being in a coma her mind started to auto-regulate.
Weeks changed into months, and we by no means left her bedside for even a second. Her child’s heartbeat continued to pulse in opposition to all odds, and we watched Kate battle to relearn probably the most fundamental features of life: respiration, sitting, speaking, consuming, and ultimately strolling. We moved from a hospital setting of survival mode to a rehabilitation setting the place she really entered “thrival” mode. Nevertheless, the trials didn’t finish there. In March 2025, whereas Kate was nonetheless recovering, we found a life-threatening fistula in her mind.
In a race in opposition to time, medical doctors carried out an emergency C-section to avoid wasting the newborn, instantly adopted by a grueling 12-hour surgical procedure involving plenty of neurosurgeons to avoid wasting Kate’s life as soon as once more. After 25 mind stents and a 12 months outlined by the sterile partitions of ICUs and the trauma of near-death emergencies, we lastly had our daughter, our grandbaby, and a sequence of miracles to course of.
As we reached our thirtieth wedding ceremony anniversary, we checked out one another and stated, “it’s time to breathe, let’s rejoice life!”
We went to the pc, selecting a last-minute crusing on the Star Delight with out figuring out a single factor about Windstar–we had by no means even heard of the road earlier than. What we discovered was a sanctuary. After a 12 months of preventing for each breath, your ship offered the peace, intimacy, and class we would have liked to lastly exhale.
At our first port of name, we got down to discover St. John on our personal, searching for a quiet house away from the world. We hadn’t meant to socialize—we really simply wished a while to ourselves—however inside minutes of coming into the tranquil waters, we discovered ourselves drawn to a household who was there for the very same motive we had been: to rejoice life!
In a staggering coincidence, we realized we had been sharing the water with G.L. Woods, the creator of Religion 911: The Inspiring True Story of Second Probabilities. To fulfill somebody with such a parallel story of survival and religion, in such a serene setting, felt like a miracle in itself. What are the percentages?
We discovered ourselves slowly mingling with the crew and our fellow passengers, and the solitude we thought we would have liked was changed by one thing higher: a way of belonging. What began as a personal retreat rapidly remodeled into a house away from residence. –Steve and Chryssi Zeleny
It appears that evidently Star Delight served because the sanctuary we would have liked, offering the proper backdrop for our two households to cross paths and share our journeys of religion and hope.
However the magic didn’t finish there: simply after we thought we might nestle in and persist with ourselves (once more), the heat of Star Delight took over. We discovered ourselves slowly mingling with the crew and our fellow passengers, and the solitude we thought we would have liked was changed by one thing higher: a way of belonging. What began as a personal retreat rapidly remodeled into a house away from residence.
That sense of residence was put to the final word take a look at throughout our cruise’s personal island barbeque off Virgin Gorda. The tranquility was all of a sudden shattered by determined shouts for a physician. A fellow passenger had collapsed face-down into her meal; she was unstable, and bystanders reported that she had no pulse. With out hesitation, my husband–a 30-year fireplace division captain–stepped in and took command. He carried out the required life-saving measures till he efficiently restored her pulse.
Whereas rendering assist, he calmly took cost of the scene, directing passengers and crew to safe medical gear and coordinating additional help from Windstar’s medical staff. His management stabilized her situation till she could possibly be safely moved, in the end making certain she was given a second probability at this factor known as life.
In the long run, we got here to Windstar to heal, however it appears we had been additionally despatched there to assist another person keep. Our “unknown” journey changed into probably the most significant voyage of our lives. We arrived needing a spot to lastly exhale, and we left having helped another person take their subsequent breath.
This voyage was greater than only a trip; it was a sequence of miracles — from assembly G.L. Woods within the quiet waters of St. John to the second my husband helped save a life on an island.
Windstar offered the house, the peace, and the proper backdrop for the tales of survival to intertwine. From all fibers of our hearts, we need to say thanks for giving us the proper place to rejoice thirty years of marriage and the miracle of our household’s survival.
Thanks for giving us the house to heal, the neighborhood to belong to, and the prospect to be precisely the place we had been meant to be. We didn’t simply discover a cruise line; we discovered a sanctuary that we are going to always remember.
With deepest gratitude,
Steve and Chryssi Zeleny
