Welcome to
Matt Gibson's
History Page

I was born on May 21, 1976, in Sydney. Yes, that's Sydney, Australia. I have an older brother (Simon) who is 5 years older than me and 2 sisters (Tennille and Bianca) who are 5 and 7 years younger than I am. I've never met my real father. Although I've spoken to him once, I've never actually met him. My mother was married to my sisters' father (Neil Palazzi) from when I was 4 until I was about 8, then she divorced him and got married to another man (Gary Wearne; which is where the name Wearne came from). Gary was in the Army, so that meant we had to move around a fair bit. When he was discharged from the Army, my family moved to Melbourne. All except for me. At that time we were living in Newcastle, New South Wales, and I had gotten myself a job, so I decided to stay on and live with my boss. A couple of months later I moved down to Melbourne to be with my family for Christmas. My mom divorced him when I was around 15.

In 1987, when we were living in Newcastle, my brother played this song from this band that I had never heard of on his record player. Then I found out that the band was Def Leppard, and that song that he was playing was Pour Some Sugar On Me. Some time later I was watching TV and I saw another song of theirs on TV, and it was Rocket. I liked both songs, so when I had some money put together, I went and bought the cassette tape to their album, Hysteria. That was the first cassette that I ever bought.

I never had the best upbringing, and when I was 13, I would often run away from home. That's when I started to meet up with people who weren't exactly law abiding citizens, and as a result, when I was 15, I spent some time in a youth training centre. On June 8, 1990, I was with a friend, and we were walking along train tracks when we came to a bridge. We were both tired of walking so we stopped for a while and sat on the bridge with our legs hanging over the side and threw rocks into the river down below. There was only one set of tracks going across the bridge, but there were refuge points where workers stand when the train comes. When the train did come though, it was coming quite fast, and I went into shock and got up and started running (straight past the refuge points) and the train hit me right at the end of the bridge. From that accident I suffered a depressed fractured skull and a compound fracture to my left humerus bone. I spent about 3 weeks in hospital at first. Then around August/September of 1990 I went back into hospital because my left arm wasn't healing, and they put a metal plate over the bone to hold it in place. I have recovered from those injuries fully. I was actually lucky my injuries weren't worse because I had a brand new pair of shoes on, and after the accident there was axle grease from the wheels of the train on them. So my foot was that close to the wheel.

The very next year, when I was in a youth training centre, I suffered several strokes as a result of a boxing match. I spent a month in hospital, and a further 11 months in rehabilitation. The strokes left me with a right side haemoplegia, which mens that I'm paralysed down my entire right hand side. My mind still works as sharp as ever, it's just that I can't communicate what I want to say very well because they put a tracheotomy tube in my neck so that I could breathe. It's very frustrating to know what you want to say, but just can't get it out quick enough. Which is why I'm always thinking a sentence or two ahead of what I'm saying. 8-]
The accident happened on August 28, 1991, so as of today

One thing that I just have to mention is that when I was in the centre, I met this school teacher, Vanda, who was studying at university to be a psychologist, and she just happened to pick up some work experience at the centre. When I was admitted to hospital, she used to come in and see me. Then when I was discharged from rehabilitation, we kept in contact. Over the years I grew very fond of Vanda, and then when we lost contact for about 7 years, I realised that I loved her. When we got back in contact, I found out that she had gotten married and had 2 children since we last spoke. At first I was a bit shocked, but then when I was reassured that she was happy, that made me happy. Vanda, when you read this, just know that I will love you always. I even wrote a song for her, which a friend of mine recorded for me. Another person worthy of mentioning here is The Rev. There was a Reverend who used to work there, and when the accident happened, the people in charge gave him an ultimatum; either stop coming to see me, or stop working there. He chose me over working there, and for that I'm very thankful. His nickname to all his friends is The Rev.

When I was discharged from rehabilitation in 1992 I still had a probation officer because of the arrests that happened before the accidents, although I had a new one. I can still remember her coming to the hospital to see me, and I was eating lunch, and she made me laugh, and I spat it out all over her. She laughed about it. Her name is Cleo, and though she no longer works in that line of work, we still keep in touch.

In 1994, I was living in a youth housing program, and I wanted to get out and excercise more, so I started to play basketball at Mill Park (it's a suburb here in Melbourne). I don't play there anymore, as they have closed te program down.

After spending the previous 3 years being moved around to different hostels, boarding houses and youth housing programs, in 1995 I rented my first house. Renting that house was my first step to total independence. I lived in that house 2 months under 3 years (a lifetime record for me), then I had to move. 8-[ But the house I moved to, I was there over 3 years. I have moved several times since then.

When I moved in January of 1998, I was still in the process of suing the Government for negligence because I was in their care when the boxing accident happened. In March of 1998, I finally finalised the court case, and was awarded a sum of money. When I was awarded the money though, it wasn't given to me exactly, it was paid into a trust fund (the Supreme Court). I can't even begin to tell you how frustrating that was because the only reason it was put into a trust fund was the fact that I had sustained a head injury and they thought that I couldn't look after large sums of money on my own.

In June 1998, I bought my first car (a brand new Mazda 626), and travelled to the United States. I had ALWAYS wanted to go to America, and I promised myself that when I finalised my court case I would do just that. At that time I was doing a computer course (Certificate II in Info Tech), and I had met a woman on the internet, Trisha, who was from America. Meeting this woman for the first time was a big thing for me at the time because I was visiting a foreign country, and I really didn't know what to expect. But I made the big mistake of taking a friend with me. When we got over there, and I had met her, my "friend" started to tell her things about me that weren't true, and the thing that got me was, she believed HIM. 8-[ ONE good thing did come out of my first trip to America though, and that was that I met 2 really nice people. The first one I met was Mike (Big Daddy) Harmes. I met Mike in Evansville, Indiana. The other person I met was Hollie, and I met Hollie in Chicago, Illinois.

When I got back from America 3 weeks later, I started to look for a basketball competition. Mill Park basketball was OK, it just wasn't challenging enough. So I asked Paula (that was the lady who ran the basketball at Mill Park at that time; Grant and Nick now run it) if she knew of any competition basketball for disabled people. She gave me some details of a competition that was on the other side of the city (a suburb called Hawthorn), which suited me fine now that I had a car. I went along to that one Friday evening, and because they didn't know me, they put me into the lowest grade (Division 4). I started to take Chris (a guy from Mill Park basketball) with me to Hawthorn basketball at the start of 1999, and when we started to win big, they put our whole team up a grade to Division 3. When we started to lose a few games and didn't make the Finals in Division 3, Chris and I started to look for a new team. That's when we come across Sarah and her mum, Joyce. We had played against one of their teams in Division 4 a number of times, and then when we got to Division 3, we played against another one of their teams. Their team in Division 3 was the team we had been looking for so I asked Joyce if we could join her team and she said yes, so Chris and I started to play for that team. As soon as we started to play in this new team, we started to win big again, so they put our new team up another grade to Division 2. Since then we have moved up yet another grade to Victorian Championships, but because we didn't do too well in that division, they put us back down to Division 2.

I became really good friends with Sarah and her family, and often drive over to their house to hang out and talk. I took Sarah out on a date, but unfortunately she chose another man to be with, which really upset me to begin with because I truly loved Sarah (and still do), but I have moved on. Sarah and Joyce don't coach us anymore, and without them all the fun has gone, but I still play basketball.

1998 was also the year that I made my Top 5 list. You see I love Women, and I had a few celebrity Women that I liked, so I thought I would make a list of all those Women and narrow the list down to 5. So I did, and in 2000 I created a Homepage to honor my Women. If you want to see what celebrity Women I love, then head over to AllMyWomen.net.

I met someone else on the 'Net, Carlie, just after I got back from the 1998 trip. Carlie was at her mom's house using ICQ when I met her, and because she lived 2 and a half hours away from her mom, and didn't have the internet at her house, she made me promise that I keep in touch with her mum until I came to America again. So I did. When I went over there I finally got to meet Carlie and her mom, Garnet. I'm really glad that I met Carlie on the 'Net, because both her and her entire family are wonderful people. Meeting Carlie wasn't as "scary" as meeting Trisha simply because I went by myself, and knew that I was going to have fun this trip so I wasn't as nervous. I stayed in America for 3 months on this trip, and I had a really great time. I also caught up with Hollie on this trip.

In 2000, the Supreme Court sent me off to see a neuro-psychologist to determine just how intelligent I was, or should I say, how capable of looking after money I was. On the neuro-psychologist's advice, the Supreme Court paid all MY money to me, and I am pleased to say that I now have full control of all my assets. Woo Hoo!!! **S** Gaining full control of my money was my final step to total independence. I WAS going to go to America in 2000, but I figured that getting control of my money was a little more important at that time.

2001 was meant to be a happy year for me. I had just gotten full control of my assets (which I have invested and now live off the interest it generates), and I was planning another trip to America. But because I wanted to go to America for longer than 3 months, that meant that I needed to apply for a visa. It turned out that because I had been arrested in the past I needed a police clearance which would show all my previous "run ins" with the law. When I showed the clearance to the US Consulate here in Melbourne, they denied my visa and I couldn't go. I was devastated. I was just told that I couldn't enter the country that I love even more than Australia.

Since I didn't go to America, I thought I would buy myself a new car. I had always wanted a V8, but couldn't get one because of restrictions put on my probationary license by my occupational therapist which said I couldn't drive a vehicle bigger than a four cylinder. When I got my full license at the end of 1998, the restrictions had been lifted. So on Christmas Eve, 2001 I bought an HSV Clubsport. For those of you out there who have never heard of it, it's made by Holden. Holden is an Australian based company owned by General Motors (the same people who make Chevrolet). The Pontiac GTO from America is an Australian car, but over here we call the car a Monaro.

Another thing I did in 2001 was change my last name from Wearne, to Gibson. The main reason I did that was because Gibson is much easier to pronounce and make understandable, especially with my speech. You would be surprised how many people mistook WEARNE for WARREN, and then ask me for my last name again. It used to be really frustrating. The other reason was that Gibson is the name on my birth certificate.

In 2003, my brother was going to this car show and invited me along. I never knew until I got there that it was a special Peter Brock day. I lined up for a couple of hours, and when I finally got to meet him, I had my photo taken with him, and asked him if he would sign the engine bay of my car. Well, he did that, and he also signed my passenger side airbag. Unfortunately, Peter was driving in a rally in Western Australia, had an accident, and died. That date was September 8, 2006.

Around the time of meeting Peter Brock, my brother also talked me into getting a tattoo. Not that I needed much persuading, as I had wanted one for a while before then. I just had the decision to make as to what tattoo I wanted; a Mariah Carey or Def Leppard tattoo. I chose the Def Leppard tattoo simply because I figured that if it was going to hurt as bad as what people made out (and it did), I would want the Mariah Carey tattoo more and if I was going to go back for another, it would be Mariah's. If that makes sense. 8-] The tattoo is on my lower back, and it's of their famous logo.

I waited a couple of years so that the charges with the police were that little bit further away than in 2001, and I re-applied for a visa in 2003. As I had been on the previous visa application when I told them I had been arrested, I was honest and told them that my previous name was Wearne AND that I had been denied a visa, only this time I hired a lawyer to help me with the application. I owe this lawyer a lot, because they granted me a visa, and I travelled to America for a third time. This time was even better than last time, because I went for 5 months, visited a heap of different cities, met lots of nice people, and just had a good time. I visited these cities: Redding CA (where Garnet and Carlie live), Las Vegas NV, Dallas TX, New Orleans LA, Atlanta GA, Detroit MI, Boston MA, Minneapolis MN, Chicago IL, Orlando FL, Hollywood CA, then flew home to Australia. The highlight of this trip was seeing Mariah Carey perform live in concert!!! Because I was staying a month in Chicago, and Mariah was touring around America at the time, I decided to sit down and work out where and when I would go and see Mariah. It turned out that I flew back to Boston on September 7, watched Mariah perform on September 8, then flew back to Chicago on September 9. It was awesome!!! It was better than I could have ever imagined. I came so close to meeting Mariah, but there wasn't any "Meet and Greet", and the manager of the theater didn't have any say as to who went backstage, so I'm still yet to meet Mariah. But one day...

Another good thing about my 2003 trip, was that I met 3 extremely beautiful people, Crystal, Andrea, and Obbie. They all worked at a Johnny Rockets hamburger restaurant in Chicago. The three of them made me feel welcome the moment I met them, and for that, I'm very thankful.

I wanted to go back to America for another holiday, only this time I just wanted to go for 2 ½ months, so I thought that I could go over there on the visa waiver program (like I had done in 1998 and 1999 because I went for 3 months or under), but it turns out I can't. Because I was denied the visa in 2001, that makes me ineligible for the visa waiver program, and I HAVE to apply for a visa every time I want to enter the country. I only found this out about a week before I was scheduled to go, so I had to put those plans on hold, and it turned out that I didn't get to go to America in 2006. But I'm prepared now, and hopefully I'll get to go in 2007. You'll have to read my journal to find out whether or not I went.

At the start of 2007, my sister and me were talking about tattoos, and I decided to go and get that Mariah Carey tattoo. Late in 2006, I went to a different tattoo artist and got the Def Leppard colored in (because I only got the outline in 2003), so I went back to the same guy and got the MC off Mariah's Merry Christmas Album put across the back of my neck.

That's my life up until the start of 2007, and now that you've read this, you can move on to what's happening in my life right now by heading over to My Journal.