Your Best Friend On Your Worst Day with Abigail Rich

A flight paramedic sees the “master warning” light in a helicopter and knows exactly what it means: life is about to change, or end. Our guest Abigail Rich has lived that moment and somehow lived through what followed, including a crash that left her with multiple surgeries, hundreds of stitches, plates in her body, and a long fight back to the work she loves. If you’re searching for a story about resilience that doesn’t sugarcoat pain, this conversation goes there. 

We trace Abigail’s full against-all-odds journey, starting with the earliest trauma of surviving an attempted murder as a two-month-old baby and moving through foster care, abuse, and the moment EMS became her purpose. She shares what it means to be someone’s “best friend on their worst day” in critical care flight medicine, and why service still matters when you can’t save everyone. We also talk about the unexpected turns people love to judge from the outside: her international modeling career, Victoria’s Secret, Playboy, and the steady presence of her “mama,” the candy striper who held her in the hospital as a baby and later adopted her. 

Then the conversation gets even more raw: surviving sexual assault, mental health struggles, and the refusal to accept the phrase “everything happens for a reason.” Abigail explains how she chooses meaning instead, through community, honesty, and giving back. Her book Invisibly Broken became a bestseller, and she donates proceeds to the Red Nose Foundation to help feed hungry children. Finally, we confront the COVID era head-on: ventilators, coma, hospice, and the loss of both of her brothers, and how she’s now turning grief into music while staying committed to EMS. 

If this story moves you, subscribe, share it with someone who needs hope, and leave a review so more listeners can find it. What part of Abigail’s journey stayed with you most?

Connect with Abigail:
Facebook: Abigail Rich, Model, Actress, Author & Singer Songwriter

Instagram: @glammodelabby

IMDB: Abigail Rich

Book: Invisibly Broken

National EMS Memorial Bike Ride: https://nemsmbr.org/

Transcript

Welcome And Introducing Abigail Rich

SPEAKER_02 0:00

Welcome back to the Against All Odds, the Less than 1% Chance podcast with your host, Maria Aponte, where we will hear stories of incredible people thriving against all odds. And my hope is that we can all see how life is always happening for us, even when we are the less than 1% chance.

SPEAKER_03 0:17

Hey, hey, welcome back to Against All Odds, a less than 1% chance podcast with your host, Maria Aponte. I am so excited to kick off this season with this guest. So my next guest story is not for the faint of heart, but it's absolutely for anyone who has ever felt like giving up. From the moment she entered this world, the odds were stacked against her. She survived an attempt on her life at just two months old, walked away from a devastating EMS helicopter crash, survived sexual assault, fought her way back from a COVID-induced coma, and through every single chapter, she showed up for others as a critical care flight paramedic. She is a published author, an international glamour model, and now a chart-topping singer, songwriter with six songs in the top 10. Please welcome this incredible guest, Abigail Rich. Thank you, Abigail, for being with us. I'm honored to be with you. Thank you so much. I so appreciate you being here. So give us a little background. I know we chatted a lot prior to recording, and I was like, oh my gosh, I need this on the record. But but give us a little story of your against all odds story background.

Surviving Infancy And Foster Care

SPEAKER_00 1:38

Well, when I was two months old, the woman who gave birth to me, drugs played a big part in this, and she decided she didn't want me. So she went to a second story window and I guess wanted to see if I could fly. Oh my gosh. I did, but not then. And he became a guest of the state, shall we say? Mm-hmm. And life went on from there. I was in foster families all the way up to I was about 16, 17. I got to go live with my grandparents. My grandmama was very abusive. She hated girls. I heard it every day.

SPEAKER_03 2:11

Yeah. Was that your mom's parents?

SPEAKER_00 2:13

Yes. Okay.

Finding EMS Through Her Grandfather

SPEAKER_00 2:15

And my granddaddy, he was wonderful. I was with him once, and we saw this horrible crash on the freeway. It was horrible. Kind of things like you see on TV. It was so bad. And he stopped, he said, stay here. Well, I did what any good 17-year-old would do. So he walked by, I got out of the car and followed him up the road. And he said, Okay, you're here. Let's start. And he told me how to take care of this one lady. And she was very, she was critically injured. I can look back now, and then I'm surprised she was still there. And that was my first intro into emergency medical services.

SPEAKER_03 2:49

And this was with your grandfather, you said?

SPEAKER_00 2:51

Yes. Mm-hmm.

SPEAKER_03 2:53

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 2:54

I went, I decided this is what I want to do for a career. So I was 17. There was an emergency medical technician, which is like the second level up in emergency medicine. I'm going to get in this class. But it had this little thing, you had to be 18. So I went ahead and applied for it and got into it. The first day of class, the instructor looked at me. He goes, Are you 18? And I went, Yeah, sure. Yeah. And he said, All right, tomorrow I want a CID because you got to be 18. By the time I graduated, I was 18 and I learned a lot. And I got right into emergency medicine, worked my way all up to a critical care flight paramedic. And I love what I do. I am my patient's best friend at their worst moment. I get through it. It's my partner and myself, we do the same thing. They do it in an emergency room, only we're doing 153 miles an hour. We had one eighth of the space. And we get the job done. And one day I was down in Texas and we had to go to an oil platform. Now, let's throw this out here. Let's be honest. I'm not pretty, I'm not sexy, I'm none of those things, but I like my hair.

unknown 4:03

Okay.

SPEAKER_00 4:03

I love my hair. And I know it looks terrible right now because I just got off a 24-hour shift that ran to like 27.5 hours. You look amazing. My hair looks really nice. So I never wore my helmet. This is public information because it messed my hair up. And I couldn't talk to my patients. It's very loud in a helicopter. And when you see a helicopter, when y'all see that helicopter signing on the freeway, understand that we are the last hope for that patient. And they're they have one foot in a grave and the other's on a banana peel. There's no doctors, there's no nurses, it's just my partner and myself. And we'll fight for you, and we don't care anything about you. We don't care what you've done. We don't care anything other than you're a human being and we will get you through it.

SPEAKER_03 4:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 4:55

That's why we do what we

The Helicopter Crash That Changed Everything

SPEAKER_00 4:57

do. EMS helicopter crashes every month in this country. I was in one of those crashes, and it was ugly. Oh my gosh. I didn't have my helmet out. I was written up like 32 times by my boss. But anyway, one day we were going to an oil platform, and we were still over the sharing of Texas. And I looked up at the annaxiator panel, which is a dashboard full of lights, and I saw a light flashing. But I was talking to the paramedical platform. So I'm trying to get all the information in my patient, know what drugs I needed, how I needed to get him through that worst moment. Then I looked up, and there's this big red light, it's this big, and it says master warning. That light means life as you know it is about to end. And I looked at it. We didn't have a patient on board yet. I reached for my helmet, which was an arm length away. I kept it behind my defibrillator. I never touched it. I don't know. It happened so quick. I remember looking up, smelling Jet A. There was smoke and debris everywhere. I looked down and we wear flight boots and a flight suit. So the flight suits, so in case we crash, our body doesn't burn. Okay. The crash won't kill us. Yeah. And I looked down, I didn't even have my flight boots on. And I always wear these little, I call I call them baby socks. Okay. They pulled over and they got the lace around. And they put on white socks that day. My socks were red. And I wasn't wearing red socks.

SPEAKER_03 6:21

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 6:21

I looked over at my partner and he was just sitting there with his mouth open. And he's yelling, Don't move, don't move. And I went, What? And put my hand up here, and there was just blood was just running down. It was in my hair and everything. The pilot's yelling at me, pull the pins on the door, push the door out. We've got to get out. We've got smoke. And I'm like, Did you call for help? Do they know where we are? He said, Don't worry about it. And I finally tried to reach through the door and I couldn't move. Well, a branch came through the side of the aircraft. It went into my tummy. It hit the top of my hip, which kept it, I think somewhat, made it move away from my kidneys, and it stuck out about eight inches to the other side. I felt nothing. I didn't feel any pain. I was just, I was dazed. I was in shock. And I noticed one of my feet were kind of like this. So I knew that was broken. And so finally my partner got over. He kicked the door out, and I looked down. I watched the door tumble down. We were in the canopy. We were up in the trees. So we really had to get out because the helicopter ultimately will come down. And I got out and my pilot got he got behind me and reached around and held branches of the tree and held me between the tree trunk and him. And I looked at him and I said, Is help coming? And he said, Yeah. Okay. And apparently I passed out. I believe it was 47 minutes before the Coast Guard found us. And I said, I'm single. I'm still single. All right. I'm just I love my work. But I looked up and I saw the USCG on the bottom of this helicopter. And this boy came down. He was so cute. I'm looking in those blue eyes and he's like, I want you to cut with me. And I'm like, oh god. Sure. And I'm thinking, oh, did I say that out loud? And he was doing this, he was tolding my hair like this, and I liked it. I felt it. And ultimately he wrapped my hair around his hand, which I thought, okay, he's holding out to me. That's really nice. And he said, We gotta go. I said, Where are we going? He goes, We're gonna go to my helicopter. I said, Hell no. I'm not doing it. Call me a truck on the ground. He goes, There's not a road for 35 miles. I said, I'll flip it out. He goes, Not with that ankle, you're not. And he goes, You gotta go now. I said, No, I'm not going. He goes, We're close to bingo, which is a term we use in helicopters, which means we're down to our fuel reserve. I said, You're heading back. And I said, Okay, look, you're cute. You really are, and I'd go anywhere with you, but I'm not getting in a helicopter. Well, remember he had my hair wrapped around his hand? Mm-hmm. He pulled really hard and I fell into the basket. That is the last thing I remember. Time went by. It was six weeks, three operations, 400 stitches, 200 staples, 17 plates, three operations in the first 48 hours. And I woke up six weeks later to a white light flashing in the face. And I'm like, what is this? And I heard my mama, now my mama is not the woman who gave birth to me. Um, it is my mama, and she adopted me. And but she was going, Abby, you did it, you did it. I'm thinking, great, what do I do now? And the white lights are flashing. And I didn't realize I was at a hospital, but and they were taking me from the critical care ICU unit to the step-down, the progressive care unit. And the white lights in the ceiling as we were going down the hallway kept flashing. Two years later, a lot of physical therapy and everything. I want to get back into EMS. It's what I do, it's who I am. I don't care who you are, on your worst day, I'll be there.

SPEAKER_01 9:55

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:56

We can't save everybody. Then I'll die fighting. And my mama took me to, I mean, got me out of the hospital. I still have crutches and stuff.

Recovery Scars And A Modeling Leap

SPEAKER_00 10:06

And she took me to this ration across the street. Cooters. Now we know everybody goes after the wings, right? We believe it. Yeah, absolutely. More lines in the phone company because I've heard them all.

SPEAKER_01 10:20

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:20

But my mom was like, You're beautiful. I have lots of scars. I mean, if you saw me up close, they're all over. And mom was telling me how beautiful I am and everything. And I'm not, I know I'm not. I mean, it's a fact of life. I got what I got, and my skills are saving lives. That's my superpower.

SPEAKER_01 10:35

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 10:35

And so the manager came up and I wanted to shut my mom up because I got tired of hearing it. And I asked for the manager, and I said, Look, am I pretty enough to be a Hooters girl? Of course, she goes, When do you want to start? That's a great interview. Mama's always right. So I was there. Oh god, I was there a long time. And his boy came in and he said, I'm a model scout. I love to do a photoship with you. And I went, Oh wow. There's an original one. I haven't heard that since minutes ago. And he goes, I have a card. Let me give you a card. I went, You went and had cards made? Oh my god. You know what? I'm buying your soda. And I coughed him a soda. And it took his card and stuff. And my first car my mama bought for me is a little red Volkswagen Beetle. I love that card. And actually, I did a photo shoot with it many years later for an international magazine. So I threw the card on the floor, didn't worry about it. And mama was out cleaning my car one day. She goes, What's this? I said, Oh, it's this boy, and he's whatever. They called him the next day. I was on a plane going to Chicago. Oh my gosh. So my mama went off with the director or whatever her title was, with this way photographer. They came back, they took the photos, and they said, We'd have to offer you a contract. And I went, I don't see if I want to do that. Mama just said, Where do I sign? I'm her manager. I love it.

SPEAKER_03 11:56

She has believed in you. Oh, I love it so much. Before we go further, though, and we'll come back to this.

Meeting The Candy Striper Who Adopted Her

SPEAKER_03 12:03

Can you tell the listener who your mama is? Oh, yes.

SPEAKER_00 12:08

Okay. So when the woman who gave birth to me tried to kill me, there was somebody jogging by the apartment complex. They saw what happened. They called the paramedics, called the police. The police came in. The woman who gave birth to me had all kinds of stories to tell them. I'm too much old. I climbed out the bedroom and went into the dining room and climbed the wall and everything and jumped out. I ended up going to the hospital. I wasn't hurt, but because of the mechanism of what happened, they automatically took me. So the woman who gave birth to me became a guest of the state. Eight years worth. And I became property of the state. So I had to wait for child protective services. There was this very young teenage girl, and she was a candy striper. And if for those of you that don't know what a candy striper is, it's like beginning junior high school and they want to get into nursing or they want to learn about medicine, they can go to a hospital and they have this program where they get to do things. Now it's not brain surgery or anything like that, but they can deliver flowers or hold babies or do things like that. She got to hold me. So for over three hours, that candy striper held me until CPS came and got me. Many, many years later, through multiple people, I was at this event and I met her, and somebody introduced me and she goes, I used to know a baby. Her name was Abigail Rich. I never forgot her. And I kind of looked at her funny. She goes, I was at this hospital. And I went, That was me. I was that baby. We became best friends. We did everything together. If I want to go on a date with somebody, she goes, No, you're not. I know what he's after. That's not happening. He became my manager in my modeling career because I ended up with a modeling career and the top 2% of models in the world. I sorry, I don't have makeup on her. And now she manages my singing career. She is my best friend. But years back, she introduced me as her daughter to somebody. And I kind of looked and I was like, Well. And one day she just came and she goes, I want you to go with me. We're going to go to court. And I went, I didn't get a ticket when I was speeding. But she was what are you talking about? And what are you talking about? Okay. Sorry, I have a tendency to drive fast. Okay. And she said, We're going to go to court. And okay, well, what did I do? And we went there and she adopted me.

SPEAKER_03 14:33

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 14:34

So that is my mama today. She too is a critical care flight paramedic. Where and I've worked together in hospitals. We do everything together. In fact, one of my songs that got released, she sang it with me.

SPEAKER_03 14:47

Oh, that's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 14:49

Well, my brothers were both flight medics and pilots. I lost both of them recently. So my mom was all I had left.

SPEAKER_03 14:57

I'm so sorry.

SPEAKER_00 14:58

That's a story of my mama.

SPEAKER_03 15:00

I love it. So then, kind of going back to this like start of this modeling career.

From Victoria’s Secret To Playboy

SPEAKER_00 15:06

I ended up, I was doing things for Oreel. I was doing fashion shows. This is all public information. It's out there. I ended up becoming through that agency a Victoria's Secret Angel. I did the fashion show in 14 in London. I did Paris. I did Beijing. I did New York. And pretty much then VS kind of got out of it and got sold off and it's got to do things. And I was actually, I modeled for some very large international magazines. I did this photo shoot for Playboy. I'm like, okay, I'm not taking my clothes. My very first shoot for Victoria's Secret was out in a dry lake bed. And I'm out there, and believe it or not, I really am shy. And there was like all these boys out here holding up reflectors and lights and aiming fans and all some hair would blow and everything. And I was wearing a robe and lingerie under it. Then the photographer goes, All right, honey, drop the robe. Oh, they gotta go. And he goes, I need them. I can replace you. And I looked at my mama and she said, Drop it. And I did. That photo's still out there to this day. I have that deer in the front of the headlights look. Okay. And it did get published in one of their catalogs. So I got booked to do this photo shoot for Playboy, not long after. And it was wearing the bunny suit. And it was like their Christmas gift giving guide.

SPEAKER_01 16:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:24

That's it. And I'm in the marriage looking at this bunny suit. I'm like, why like this? And Mr. Hefner walked by. And I don't care what you hear about him, he was a sweetheart. He was such a gentleman. He was really he was from a generation when all boys were gentlemen.

SPEAKER_03 16:44

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 16:44

I mean, and you hear all this stuff about it. People talk about the Playboy Mansion and the wild parties and stuff. There was never anything, because I was there many a time. It was always high class. Like boys came, they had to wear a coat, girls had to wear a dress. It was just really good food, music, and concerts, and then artists there, and it was just a good get-together, but there was never sex or anything like that there. And I know I hear this stuff now, but it's not true. So anyway, he came in and he goes, one of my new bunnies. And I went, Okay. He goes, Where do you work? And I went, I didn't see the name of the EMS agency I work for. And he goes, I don't know what that is. It's an air ambulance. I'm a flight paramedic. So he goes, Not today, you're not. And he asked, How he would like to be a bunny. I said, Oh, I love this. Can I take this home? And he goes, Nope. I mean, Playboy Bunny suit belongs to Playboy. I have six of them in the next room because Playboy is gone. I have my Victoria's Secret Angel Wings, too, in fact. And he asked me if I'd like to work at the polls in Las Vegas, Savannah. And then he told me what it paid. And like, okay, what do I gotta do? What does this entail? And he goes, Well, we'll probably have you be a door bunny. And that meant I was a greeter. Yeah. And the pay was wow. And I had to wear a green bunny suit. Love it. Black bunny suits are playmates, just so you know that only playmates get to wear the black bunny suits. And I had red and everything else. And he would come in, and six months later, he'd go, Miss Abigail. And I said, Yes, sir, Mr. Hefner. He goes, I'm glad you're here. And he goes, Hef, please call me Hef. I said, You're my boss. I'm just gonna call you Mr. Hefner. And he goes, May I have a photo with you? And I said, Absolutely. So he put his arm around me. He never touched me. He kept like that much space between his arm and me. He was always a gentleman. When I did my ultimately when I accepted to be Playboy Playmate, he allowed me the choice to choose my own photos. They were my best work, they were old school Marilyn Monroe style. Oh, I love that. Okay. I mean, like my knees were always touching. There was art to it. It wasn't what you see today.

SPEAKER_03 18:53

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 18:54

And he was okay with that. And there were times when he'd go, Do you mind if I see it in on your photo shoot? And I went, Yes. But I get to see the photos. I said, looking at a photo and being in the room to me are two different things.

SPEAKER_03 19:07

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 19:07

That makes perfect sense to me. And he respected that.

SPEAKER_03 19:10

That's awesome.

SPEAKER_00 19:11

He ended up being a I am an eight-time international playboy playmate. That is a great plan of Pamela Anderson. Holly did more than me.

SPEAKER_03 19:20

Wow.

SPEAKER_00 19:21

I am nobody special. I mean, I mentioned that to you. I'm not, I'm a Montana country girl. I'm a cow girl. I'm at home with my horses and my cows. And I so I did modeling for quite a while. And after the crash, I did the Hooters and I worked up, but I still stayed in EMS. That's incredible.

SPEAKER_03 19:40

So throughout this whole time that you were modeling like all of it, you were an EMS pilot yes. So you're not just EMS, you're also a what?

SPEAKER_00 19:52

I am also a pilot. I am what's called a hems pilot. That's helicopter emergency medical services pilot. I am currently stationed for the company I work for in Texas. I am the only female hems pilot in the state of Texas.

SPEAKER_03 20:07

That's incredible. So you still have your ranch in Montana, correct? I do. Would you like to let us in on a little bit of your Montana

Ranch Life And Smuggling A Calf

SPEAKER_03 20:18

life?

SPEAKER_00 20:18

I own the Twisted R Ranch. My modeling career, my big brother Michael, my little brother Brian, my mom and I, we this was our world together. We were a family. I mean, everything we did revolved around our family. And so the Twisted R Ranch in Montana, it is actually over 200,000 acres non-contiguous. There's 10,000 acres in Texas. There's 26,000 in Wyoming. And then in Montana, we have 160,000 acres. It's just, it's in it's north of Missoula. It's surrounded by U.S. Forest Service and state lands. 1886 was filmed there. Yellowstone was filmed there. The TV show Yellowstone was filmed there. The we have the largest cattle ranch in the country that does not sell their cattle.

SPEAKER_03 21:07

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 21:08

In fact, you're gonna love this one. We have a star on Hollywood Boulevard. Oh my gosh, are you serious? Yes. Now it's not actually not on Hollywood Boulevard, it's on a side street there, but considered part of it. My cows, all the cattle you see there are my cows. My cows are my children. I'm 42 years old, I'm single, but I have children and they go move. And we shared a photo of them giving me kisses. I told you.

SPEAKER_01 21:32

Yeah, it was the cutest thing.

SPEAKER_00 21:34

Tell you a story about my cows. I went back to the United Kingdom to do a photo shoot and do some work. And we were driving by this pasture. Now, cattle in the UK are different than here. Like they don't have longhorns, but they have Scottish calendars and they have what's called a British white. And these are beautiful animals. They're all white, and they have little black ears and a little black nose, and they're just doing it. Horrible.

SPEAKER_03 22:00

I love that.

SPEAKER_00 22:01

This mama cow was giving birth. We stopped on a side of the road. And cars are really little there, too, by the way. But we stopped on a side we were watching that. And the farmer was out there and everything. And mama passed in giving birth to her little boy. Farmer was pretty upset. I said, What a beautiful baby. And he goes, Do you want him? Come on. Of course. How could you say no? And he said, He's yours. And my mom has given me this weird look, and I went, What? We were on our way to the airport. Okay, you already see the problems here. I just saw this beautiful little baby boy. And I named him Oliver, Sir Oliver. And so my mama got a car. I told my mom we get to drive now. And we drive on the wrong side of the road there. And we're on our way to Heathrow Airport. And my mama goes, So how are you gonna get a bull on a plane? And I'm oh heck. Uh yeah. Oh okay, we got to do something. Our plane boarded in two hours. Oh my gosh. So I bought a pet store and I bought the biggest crate I could, and I bought a blanket, and then I called the airlines and I bought a the seat next to us. Okay, so I could have him so he could be inside and not in the baggage compartment. I actually went to school there too. I have a degree out of King's College and the University of London, my aviation medicine degree. So we get on board the plane, and just came out right there. The flight attendant says, Oh, welcome aboard, British Airlines. Oh, you've got the puppy to you. And I'm like, Yep, yep, here do you puppy, yep, puppy. And she goes, Oh, could I see him? Then I looked at my map and we're like, no, no, no. You can bring dogs on a plane. Yeah. You can't bring cows. Okay. And so I had the very front seat. The flight of tenants are sitting right over there, facing back, right by the door. And I had Oliver tucked way over in the corner. I told the flight of that he's really nervous. We had to give him medicine so he'd sleep. Didn't bother anybody. Hey, that's quite thoughtful of you. It's ears. And thank you. That's just how I roll. And you know, we're taxiing. We're getting ready to roll onto the runway. And guess what? Oliver does. Moose. And look. I look at the flight attendant. Look at we made eye contact and she went. And I'm like, no. No. I do that when I'm nervous. We rotated out. Seatbelt lights went up. She came back. You got a bloody cow on my airplane. I said, No, I can explain this. El quad, then go ahead and explain it. I can't. You Americans, bloody Americans. This is just like that little temper tap Jim. I have to let the captain know. We're gonna have to go back. You're gonna have to talk to the police. We're gonna have to have Metropolitan Police. And I'm oh god. And Mama's sitting there going, the captain comes out. He's got his hat, putting his hat on, buttoning his coat up. He goes, Where is he from Australia? And he's like, Where is he? You know, right here. And he goes, Can you let him out? I'd better not do that. She's really upset with me. And she's like, that's right. And I'm like, I goes, Can I see him? Yes. So I got Oliver out, and he's still just a baby. I mean, he's not even a day, a full day old. Oh my god. She's looking at him and she goes, I told you it's a bloody cow. And he goes, That's not a cow. And I looked at him, he looked at me and winked. And I went, What he said. Okay. Okay. Or the pilot's like, I don't want to turn around. And he said, It's a bloody cow. I'm going to coal operations. He goes, You're not gonna do anything because it's not a cow. So he picked Oliver up in a cow. I don't know if you're aware of it, but a cow is a female bovine that's given birth to a baby. Yeah. He's a calf. And he's a bull. So the captain goes, Well, that's clearly a bull calf. That's not a cow. And I don't believe regulations say anything about a bull calf. Calf. He goes, So, and he goes, Have a great flight. I said, I will now. Oh my gosh. Don't be expecting me to shave you beverages. I went, Got it. I can live with that. Sounds good. I got my baby calf. So now Oliver has had babies. He's got a son. His son's name is Nick. His mama was is a Jersey cow. Yes, they were in separate pastures, but somehow Oliver, and Over 2,100 pounds. Oh my god. He got over the things. And they had a nice little rendezvous, and I got a beautiful little boy out of it named Nick. Oh, that's amazing. From there, I back to working flight and modeling until COVID hit.

Sexual Assault And A Breaking Point

SPEAKER_03 26:51

I know that you had let me know that there was also some sexual assault. When did that happen? Was that during like modeling?

SPEAKER_00 26:59

It was when I was modeling. Well, let me go, let me let me go back. When I was eight years old, I have a blood brother. And I was eight years old. And I got through that. In my 20s, mama's right here holding my hand now. And I sometime later, I was just in the wrong place at the wrong time. And I didn't, I wasn't dressed any different than I am now. I had blue jeans. I had a low-cut top. I wear low-cut top. Sorry, if I'm comfortable, it doesn't give anybody the right to do anything.

SPEAKER_03 27:33

I agree.

SPEAKER_00 27:38

I sometimes think, I don't know, I didn't fight hard enough. I don't know. Anyway, yeah. So that would happen.

SPEAKER_03 27:48

I understand. My sexual assault happened at 16. And the first thoughts were what did I do to provoke it? Right. And nothing, because there's never a reason for anybody to get sexually assaulted. No. And yeah, so I completely understand.

SPEAKER_00 28:09

It gets worse. It was an off-duty policeman. I reported it to internal affairs. I did everything I could. And they basically said, well, it comes down to your word against his, and he's a police officer.

SPEAKER_01 28:21

Of course.

SPEAKER_00 28:23

And I had a very tough time dealing with it. I still do. And my mama went shopping. And I just, this was after my crash, of course. And of course, I still, when you're in a helicopter crash, you have just about you have a pharmacy full pills having it. Y'all can figure that out. And I just said, I'm done. I'm done. I can't do this anymore. Anyone say something? A boy walk up behind me. I jump. Yeah, I'm 42. I've dated five boys in my life. I was dating a boy at the time. And he was probably the one. I broke up with him. I never told him why. I just broke up. So we're done. And he called and came by for six, eight months. And I wouldn't see him. I wouldn't tell him why. Yeah, but I just I couldn't do it. So I went out to my barn, and my mama bought me this horse years before that. I used to barrel race, and his name was Stetson. He's gone now. And uh I just laid down in the barn with him and went to sleep. Woke up later that day in the hospital with a tube down my nose and black stuff all over my face. And my wonderful mama protected me and said she gave me my medicine. She didn't know I had already taken it, and she protected me. She is the world's best mama.

SPEAKER_03 29:49

It's definitely scars that are very difficult to get past.

SPEAKER_00 29:55

I'm Catholic? Okay. But like I say, I believe in God. I sure hope there's a God. I lost both my brothers recently. And I want to, I can't wait to go to heaven to meet him. But if there's there's times I've held children and babies that have died.

SPEAKER_03 30:12

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:13

And I go, come on, come on, help me out here. Just come on and give me this one. I don't know if God's got me on hold. And I'm listening to elevator music or angel music or whatever, but sometimes I wonder.

SPEAKER_01 30:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 30:25

It's just, I guess, my life. Because geez, sometimes you just can't win. No matter what you do.

SPEAKER_03 30:32

No, and like here all the time, well, everything happens for a reason. And I'm like, let's stop right there. Yeah, let's stop right there.

Rejecting Easy Answers About Suffering

SPEAKER_03 30:42

I don't believe that anymore. I don't believe that there's a reason that children die. I don't believe before they even get a chance to live. I don't believe that there's a reason for people to get raped. I don't bel like, I don't believe that. I don't believe that. However, I do believe that everything and anything we go through, we can find purpose and meaning behind it in a way that will make us better, help other people. You speaking your story will help someone. You will be the lighthouse for someone else that is in the dark. And I feel like it the moment that we can flip that that thought process from I'm the victim of my circumstances to I am I'm thriving no matter what circumstances I went through. I think that it shifts the way that we view our life, right? And what we've been through. I am who I am because of the things that I went through. And I quite like who I am. Right.

SPEAKER_00 31:50

And it likes you. You're a published author. I am. So am I. Yeah. And it's that everybody tell me, write your story, tell it to the world. It will make it better. It doesn't. I wrote a book in 2016. My first publisher I sent it to said, got it. We love it. Cut it down. It was over 3,000 pages. So I had to cut it down to 300 pages. But it made the New York Times bestseller list. It is still being sold today.

Writing Invisibly Broken And Giving Back

SPEAKER_00 32:16

It made the London England bestseller list. It's called Invisibly Broken. Barnes and Noble has it. Amazon has it. And it I will put the links in the description. Here's the thing. I don't make a penny off of it.

SPEAKER_03 32:27

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 32:27

When I was in modeling, I heard about the Red Nose Foundation. And it is a foundation that there it's not like some of the other ones, like the Red Cross. Let's use the Red Cross as an example. Their CEO is paid. We're not going to touch on his pay, but y'all can figure that out. Okay. The Red Nose Foundation has no paid employees. There is no CEO making millions of dollars every year. 100% of everything that comes in feeds hungry children. No child should ever be hungry ever. There's no excuse for this. We're the we're all stuck on this rock together. I don't care where they are, what country they're in. No child should ever have an empty tummy. So 100% of my proceeds on that book goes to the Red Nose Foundation. And last year they got over $36,000.

SPEAKER_03 33:11

That's amazing.

SPEAKER_00 33:13

My book was ultimately in 2021. A company came in and said we're going to make a movie about it. They were doing location scouting and everything. They had it set up. They had one of the actors, which actresses, which I know personally from Yellowstone was going to play me. And it was set up, and then COVID hit. And then, of course, everything stopped. I have a book out. And I told everything. Here's the thing about my book. Before it was published, it had to go before the publisher's legal team. Okay. I wasn't smart with like you were with your book. I ran through a publisher. So now we've got to dot our I's, cross our Ts, we've got to check everything. We've got to cross-check all the figures. We've got to see police reports about the woman who gave birth to me and everything. And it was a long endeavor. But one thing I didn't do is I didn't hide the names of everybody involved. Good. I put the real names. If you read my book, the names you read in there are their real names. And their attorney said, Wait, you said a whole harmless for us? Absolutely. My attorneys go, they can sue you. And I said, Let's go. You want to dance? Let's dance. Let's go to court. And you tell me you didn't do that to me in that bedroom.

SPEAKER_03 34:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 34:24

It never happened.

SPEAKER_03 34:26

Worse. It's worse for them.

SPEAKER_00 34:29

Yes. But I keep tabs of where they are. I know where they are. I know where the woman who gave birth to me is now. She reached out to me God 10 years ago, about the time I was in Playboy, and I was at Victoria's Secret. And she called in and I'm like, who is this? And she goes, This is your mom. Who? Then I see this is Melody. I went, What do you want? Well, your dad and I were getting kicked out of our house. My dad, you never you told me you never know who my dad was. Well, you know, who I'm with now. That's like your dad. I'm like, okay, what do you want? We're getting kicked out of our house. Wondered if you would buy us a house in a neighborhood where you live. Click. I know I mean, but I have my mama, she's right there. My mom there would risk her life for me. My mama fought for me when I was in the crash. And I don't know if y'all know this. We all have workmen's comp. It's the law. Companies have to have workman's comp to protect us, right? There is a cap. Workman's comp is only going to pay so much. And hospitals are a business.

SPEAKER_03 35:30

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:31

This is not like the UK. But healthcare, we don't have medicine in the United States of healthcare. And healthcare comes with a price. And it's all about making money. So I was in the critical care ICU for six weeks. It's like a hundred thousand a day.

SPEAKER_03 35:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 35:48

And they came to my mama and they said, Abigail's in horrible pain. She can't go on like this. I was on great drugs. I didn't feel anything. I don't remember anything. And they wanted my mama to sign a paper to take me off of life support. She said, No. When God says it's done, then it's time.

SPEAKER_01 36:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:10

They filed a case in court to become my guardian so they could take me off of life support because they weren't being paid anymore. The day mama was supposed to go to court. I woke up. I woke up at 4 in the morning, 4 a.m. At 9 a.m. She was supposed to be in court. Wow. She's fought for my life. She has saved me after what happened to me with that boy. She was right there for me. I couldn't sleep for months. I just couldn't go to sleep. I just knew he was going to be there. And she would hold me while I was in bed. She'd sit there and hold me. And I could wake up if I doze off. I'd wake up in a fright and she'd be right there, you know, brushing my hair and holding me and stuff. She got me through this. I hate to say it, but mamas are always right. Okay. She's my best friend in the whole world.

SPEAKER_03 37:02

That's amazing. So how did you go? Obviously, we know about the published author also. What happened with COVID?

COVID Ventilators And Losing Her Brothers

SPEAKER_00 37:12

In COVID, healthcare workers, we have families. We're like everybody else. The thing about those of us who work in the emergency medical services field is we will die for our patients. We took an oath. That oath is very serious to us. Each and every one of us, I don't care if you're driving a red truck or you're in an ambulance or you're a police officer or you're in a helicopter.

SPEAKER_01 37:34

Yeah we're there.

SPEAKER_00 37:35

We are your best friend on your worst day, and we will get you through it. And a lot of us got together, and I understand it, but a lot of the people in healthcare in our country said, I can't do this. People are dying left and right. I have family, I have children, I have a newborn. I can't do this. My brothers came to me because I got them into emergency medicine. They both work for the same company I work for to this day. And they said, What do you want to do? My little brother called me Babs. Bugs Bunny had a girlfriend. Her name's what it was was Babs Bunny. Brian said, You always remind me of her. So he called me Babs. Only he could do that. His friends couldn't do anything. Oh that was that was Brian. And I got them both into it. And they came and said, What do you want to do? What do we do? And we got together with mama and we said, I said, we took an oath. If we don't answer that call, who will? We right about in August, we worked 24 hours a day. Like starting in July 25th, we started working 24 hours a day, all the way through August. We were transporting COVID patients. Like you wouldn't believe all four of us caught COVID.

SPEAKER_03 38:50

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 38:51

Brian was the first one. I took him to the hospital. The next day, Brian, Michael went to the emergency room. Both admitted into ICU. The next day, my mama took me. All of us ended up on ventilators.

SPEAKER_03 39:09

Oh my goodness.

SPEAKER_00 39:11

I came off the ventilator two weeks, three weeks later. And so did Michael. And we were in the same area in the hospital. Brian coded his heart stopped that day. Brian was my best buddy. Brian and I were so close. My brothers kept me safe from the creepers from my Playboy career and everything. They were everything to me.

unknown 39:40

Sorry.

SPEAKER_00 39:41

Anyway, Brian passed and I didn't know what to do. I ended up Michael passed two weeks later. I ended up being in a coma. And they taught my mom, again, I won't make it, so they put me on hospice.

SPEAKER_03 39:56

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 39:58

Because in hospice is only for six months. I work for a hospice company. You then you know, right? And but as soon as a facility and six months came and they're like, somebody's gotta do something.

SPEAKER_03 40:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 40:10

So mama basically took care of me. And one day I woke up. I asked about my brothers. This happened down in Texas, because that's where we were working for the air ambulance company. And the governor, Greg, in Montana reached out to my mama. He called one day and she got this call. This is a call from the governor of the state of Montana. And my mom was like, Yeah, right, click. Okay. They called back. And it was. And he said, I heard two of my cowboys, two Montanans, passed, giving their lives for people they were trying to save. He said he was flying a flag over the Capitol that day in honor of Brian. The next day for Michael, those flags are right there. And he went out and he bought a tree. And I mean a little tree, but he bought a tree. He signed an executive order. He had a plaque made. And it said, in honor of Michael and Brian Rich, two Montana cowboys who gave their lives to save others in need. That is on the Capitol Grounds in Helena, Montana. This year, there's an organization called the National Emergency Medical Services Memorial Bike Ride. And every year they honor those of us who give our lives, who make that ultimate sacrifice for people we don't know.

SPEAKER_03 41:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:41

People that we say, your family, we got this. We've got you. But for those who made the sacrifice, this year we're getting close to 100 people. And they yellow EMTs and paramedics, they ride their bikes, and we're not talking a little group here from the East Coast to the West Coast. And every day they stop and they say each one of the honorees' names. Yesterday we found out that Michael and Brian both are being honored. And we're going to actually go and meet them in Wichita Falls in September. And they have dog tags. And these EMTs and paramedics who volunteer to do this, they don't get paid to do this. There is nothing. They do this to remember. They do this to say thank you. They do this to say we're sorry you made that sacrifice, but you rest now because we've got it. We've got it here on. That's so good. So you can look them up too. The National EMS Memorial Bike Ride.org. Yeah, I'll put the link in the description. You can see the honorees name. Michael Rich, Brian Rich, they're right there. They both passed from COVID. I'm so sorry. Hope it is still going on, people. Yeah, it is. I'm gonna ask, I'm gonna give some medical advice. If you have trouble breathing, go seek help. Don't and this is what we're seeing in the helicopter now. Well, he had trouble breathing two weeks ago, and it's only getting worse. Yeah. Don't. If you have trouble breathing, go. I'm sorry. We all had the vaccines. We didn't have a choice. You were in healthcare. You had to get to, didn't you?

SPEAKER_03 43:20

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 43:21

Bet you still got cook. We all caught it. We did. We're fighting something we still to this day don't know what it is.

SPEAKER_03 43:28

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:28

Tell you this: whatever your beliefs are, whatever you believe in, whatever your religion says good or bad, we are all human beings. We are stuck on this rack together.

SPEAKER_01 43:38

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 43:39

There are certain things we like and dislike about humanity, but we are human beings. Help somebody, help your neighbors, look out for your neighbors, look out for your senior citizens. Because y'all don't want to ride with us in a helicopter.

SPEAKER_03 43:51

So, how have you transitioned?

Turning Grief Into Songs

SPEAKER_03 43:53

And where did this music career come from?

SPEAKER_00 43:57

They roll the dice. I don't know. After COVID and everything. Everything. I've had a few companies call say, hey, would I contract you for maddling? And I'm like, no, I'm paramedic. I love what I do. I just don't want to take away from it. There's people that get up in the morning and go, I have to go to work. I get to go to work. And it's a difference. And I would never tell, and I haven't mentioned the company I work for because I don't want them to know about this. I do this job for free. I love getting my patients through this. They're my family. Their family is my family. And we don't save everybody, but their family is still mine. Yeah, absolutely. But on the side, I was working for this other company, a creed group of people, and they do set medic work and stuff like that. They're like for movies and TV shows and concerts and all that. And I don't know, I just get in and do these things, and the people are like, hey, we'd like to have you come back and everything else. So I did this concert for this one very well-known country music artist. And we were in her dressing room talking about what she's going to do, how's she feeling? Things I want her to be careful of. Don't hydrate. Please drink. You don't want me to pick on you because I'll beat you up. Okay. I got needles because I'm really good at it. I can start an IV doing 153 miles an hour, 2,000 feet off the ground. I can do this. You don't want me doing it on stage. Yeah. She so she was reading this song I was writing, and she goes, Who wrote this? Anyway, I did. And give me that. You're not supposed to be reading that. Lyrics to a song, and I love it. And I said, Thank you. So she said, Have you composed music to it? Because I can help you. And I said, I already did. And it's called Wings of Hope. And it's there's it's actually on YouTube and everything else. And it was a song I needed a boy to sing, though. And I got my medical director where I work, and he's very cute by the way, but I work there, so we don't do that. So he went to my mama and asked my mama if he could take me out. Oh wait, my mama said, I'm okay with it if Abby is. And he came out, no, no, I work for you. He goes, it's fine, you're fired. And I went, it doesn't work because I know you can't do this without me. But I did talk him into singing it, and I sang back up for it. And it really took off. And there's a music video on it. You'll see me in there. So my hair is naturally red. I'm really a redhead. Uh-they were supposed to get all the red, obviously they didn't. And anyway, so the song became a hit, and I did another one called Answering the Call. And it just kept going. And this one particular artist goes, She offered me 50,000 for one of my sons. They're not for sale. My sons, why, one of them is called Why. Last December, and I kind of did my breakout in 2025. For Christmas, I wrote a song called Mama's Song. And I was trying to follow her lead and do it country. I don't know, I don't think it came out well, but I actually gave it to Mama before it was released. It's still doing great. It's in the top 10. I released a song about Brian. I just released a song June 1st. It's about Michael. Y'all, I mean, I've told you the story behind it, but and actually I'm writing another one now. I actually wrote one song sitting in a mall parking lot. It took me two weeks to write the song. That's amazing. I was working on one this morning whilst flying. I'm sitting going, well, let's see, this would go, yeah, this would work. And I was a pilot today, and my crew's like, You're writing another song. Yes, don't bother me. Okay. Air traffic show, we're coming to airport. Air traffic's cool. They're calling me. I'm like, stand by, I'm working on something. She actually offered, she asked me to sing back up for her because somebody didn't show up one day, and I did. That's so wow. She goes, Wow, I mean, your voice, wow. And would you like to do that all the time? And I went, No. And she goes, You didn't even think about it. I said, Okay, you're right. No. I'm a flight paramedic. It's everything to me. It's not the adrenaline thing. I've been doing this for so long. It's just, I don't care what the pay, but when you go into somebody's house and their loved one is not breathing and their heart's not beating, and you can have them talking to you when you get them to the hospital. There is no better feeling in the world than that.

SPEAKER_03 48:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 48:08

I think it was Abraham Lincoln said that the first great thing a man can do is create life. The second best thing they can do is to save a life. And that's why I'm here. So anyway, I love that. Yeah, person said, I'll pay for your studio time, do your songs, no strings attached. And it my last song took me seven hours in the studio. I couldn't get to it without crying.

SPEAKER_01 48:32

Oh my gosh. No.

SPEAKER_00 48:34

And yeah, that's how I did it. I enjoy it. I love it. No, I'm not going on tour. No, I'm not going to do concerts. I go out in the pasture and sing to my cows, and they lay down next to me and listen and chew their bubblegum, which is what cows do when they're laying down. And how often do you go back home to Montana? Okay. So six years ago, company I work for, the operations chief, a really great guy. I work for a great group of people. He said, Hey, I need a flight paramedic, I need two flight paramedics and a pilot. And I went, we were in Montana flying. I mean, God's country. And I said, Where? Texas went, no. Because I don't understand. I said, okay, it's a boy thing. I got it. What don't y'all understand? Or the O. It's pretty simple. No. He goes, it's just for two months. Somebody's going to maturity to leave. You're the best I got. By the way, let you know this. Monday, the announced, I am the 2026 flight paramedic of the year. That's amazing. Congratulations. No. I'm like, so do I get a big check cardboard check the hole or something? And I went, no. Oh my god, great. Okay. Kudos. It means a lot to me. That's amazing. That was six years ago. I finally gave in. I said, yeah, okay, if you guys need me, because they're really short-staffed. And I'm still here. We went home for four days, two months ago. And we were actually making plans in August to go home for longer. And then they said, we might have you out in oil country. I'm like, no, not with the roughnecks. No, not out in the world. The oil is nasty out there. Dirty and dust and oil everywhere. And cute poised, by the way, but not that I would not. And I don't, Agnes, we're gonna go home in August.

SPEAKER_03 50:25

I love

Advice For Your Darkest Chapter

SPEAKER_03 50:26

it. So what is your message to someone who is in the middle of their darkest chapter right now? Who feels like there's no way out and no reason to keep going?

SPEAKER_00 50:36

The hurt never goes away. Whatever it is. If it's money, don't worry about it. If you think, if you look at life, all the bad things that have happened, if you think about it, ultimately something good happens and you get through that. In the last chapter of my book, I'm gonna quote a line I used in there. Now, Ria, I don't know if you speak French or not. And bonjour de comment t'es vu, right? So I took French in junior high school, high school, and college. So I'm gonna use some French here. Okay. Trust me. Okay, and this is a line, it's in the last chapter of my book. Life stuff. Shit happens. Yes, that is French. I'm telling you it's French, and we're gonna leave it at that. It happens. Please excuse my language. Okay, but it's true, it's in my book. Don't give up. I've been there. I was so close. But if I did that, I wouldn't have my mama right here. I wouldn't last week have saved that four-year-old whose heart had stopped beating. If I wasn't there, his mama would go through the pain that I know. That my mama knows. That little boy will grow up and maybe he'll be the president or maybe he'll cure cancer. We are all human. There's all things we don't like. I'm Catholic. There's something I don't like. Okay? But that doesn't mean that part of society is wrong. Live and let live. Nobody has the right to hurt anybody. I don't care what. Don't give up. I'm gonna say, can they say call the suicide hotline prevention line? I did that. They told me take a warm shower. That was their big advice. It didn't work. Find somebody, talk to somebody. Find somebody who understands. If you've been assaulted, talk to somebody that's been assaulted. No, it's not gonna go away. And the bad dreams aren't gonna go away. But if you give up, you find community. Know what's waiting for you. It could be the love of your life, it could be having your own baby, it could be hitting the lottery. You never know. Don't give up. Somebody to talk to your pastor, somebody, don't give up, please. Somebody's in trouble. Look, I have an Instagram account, I think I have a Facebook account. I used to have all of them. I only have two now. My best friend handles them for me. But if somebody's in trouble, reach out. I'll talk to you. It's free. Yeah. Maybe you and I have been through the same things, and we can work through it together. And I could help you, and maybe you could help me. It's there.

SPEAKER_03 53:11

It's finding the community in all of it. Yes, absolutely. So finally, you've said that as a flight paramedic, you are someone's best friend on their worst day. What do you want people to take away from your story on their worst day?

SPEAKER_00 53:28

On your worst day, know that you can get through it. And if you can't get through it, I'll help you get through it. Or your mama can help through it. Maria could help you get through it. Because we've both been through a lot of things together. We know we can we've been down that same road. And girls, ladies, we're not alone. I'll bet you if we all sat down in a room, we can who's been through this? Everybody's gonna go right here. Right? Your best friend on your worst day. I'll get you through anything. I will please. I'm asking, please don't make the mistakes I did. I'm lucky enough to do it because I'm single, but I have children right out there, and they go moo. Have y'all ever given helped a little baby calf into the world? We have. And actually, the last one we did, he's a miniature black ingus, and his name is Gunsmoke, and he adores my mama. He is full grown now, he is 30 inches tall.

unknown 54:28

Oh my gosh.

SPEAKER_00 54:29

Oh bro. So if y'all ever watch Yellowstone and you see the cows, those are mine. And an insider's secret when you see the babies running alongside the big ones, they're not babies, they're miniature black ingus. That's so crazy. I can't miss out on. Travel, go see things. I can't promise you tomorrow. I can't promise it for myself. I'm not scared to die. I'm in the line of work that we know it could happen anytime I go to work. It's what I do. Yeah. But enjoy life. Go out, have a good time. Live your life so that you can look back and go, Maria, we probably shouldn't have done that. Had fun when we did it, right? Yeah. Don't look back and go, I wish I did that. Enjoy life. And you got bills, everybody's got bills. Have fun with everything. Work. If you don't like your work, leave it. Find something you love. We're there. I've done that. I've worked in hospitals going, this sucks. Yeah. I'm sorry. It just does. Find your happiness. Find your happy place. It's this. It is this right here. That's what it comes down to. And what that is, you have to find. Yeah. But it is that one thing.

Final Reflections And Goodbye

SPEAKER_03 55:40

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 55:40

Absolutely. Or it's a wasteup from a flight paramedic.

SPEAKER_03 55:43

I love it. Oh my gosh. Abigail, thank you so much for your amazing story. And honestly, this is the against all odds, right? I think that in so many of these stories, you may not have gone through the same thing, but I could probably guarantee you that you've been through the same emotions, and that's where we connect as human beings. Yes. And I think that's so important to see that someone that has gone through all of these things can still have a smile on their face, still strive for things that they feel passionate about, still live. And I think that's so important. So thank you for being the example. Thank you for for allowing us in your world. And yeah, and thank you, thank you. Seriously. And I hope you all had as much fun as I did today speaking with Abigail. Thank you so much for listening, watching however you consume this. And peace out, guys. Love your life. Bye bye.