‘The second I got the phone call, everything changed.’ Exploring the temporal experiences of the spouses and partners of spinal cord injured sportsmen

Abstract

ABSTRACT Just as those who suffer a disabling spinal cord injury (SCI) through sport become wounded storytellers so do their spouses/partners. Little however is known about the experiences of such spouses/partners and even less is known about how time operates to shape these experiences. This article, therefore, draws on life story data to explore the experiences of three women whose male spouses/partners have become disabled due to a SCI received whilst playing rugby. A thematic narrative analysis revealed how this event instigates a temporal-relational disruption that catapults these women into living in, by and through different types of time that operate in a multi-dimensional manner to shape how they construct their identities and come to understand themselves and others with a past, and a present, that has consequences for their future. The implications of this process for health care professionals in supporting those who face similar sets of circumstance are considered.