PORTSMOUTH, VA — Nada Edwards’ doctors braced her family that an October 2017 automobile crash would claim her life. As the Portsmouth teen lingered in a coma for months at a Chesapeake hospital, it seemed they might be correct, though her mother never fully accepted that her daughter would slip away.
Mom was right. About five months after a car smashed into the side of Edwards’ car, knocking her unconscious, she opened her eyes and told her mother, who had been keeping vigil at her daughter’s bedside throughout the long ordeal, that she loved her.
This week, Edwards rose from her wheelchair and walked across the graduation stage to accept her diploma from Woodrow Wilson High School — something many didn’t think would be possible either.
Alice Edwards, the teen’s mother, told news station WTKR, that she never gave up on her resilient daughter.
“They told me they didn’t think that she would wake up and if she did, she would be a vegetable,” she said. “As a mom, you don’t accept that.”
When her daughter regained consciousness, there was no way to describe it other than, “literally, God just flipped a switch and she was back,” Alice Edwards told the news outlet.
Nada Edwards woke up with resolve. She wanted to graduate from high school — on time — with her class.
“That’s always been my number one goal: Walk across the stage for graduation,” the teen told WTKR.
She was woefully behind, of course. But after months of rehabilitation and with the help of teachers, some of whom went to her house to give her extra help, she can check that goal off her list.
“Wow I really amaze myself. The ‘doctors’ said there’s no chance I was gonna wake up but if I did I was gonna be in a ‘Vegetative state,’ ” she wrote on her Facebook page. “Look at me now … As promised, I walked the stage.”
Getting out of the wheelchair to get to her walker wasn’t something she was able to do in therapy, the teen wrote on Facebook.
“I always want either too far forward or not up at all,” she wrote. “Graduation was my first time doing it that good.”
She didn’t need assistance, either.
Those in the crowd roared their approval and stood in applause to recognize the teen, who Woodrow Wilson High School Superintendent Elie Bracy III called “an inspiration” for the school and entire Portsmouth community.
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“Her resilience, persistence and refusal to give up have been an inspiration not just to her classmates and school, but for the entire Portsmouth community,” Bracy told Yahoo Lifestyle. “We are excited to continue to follow her journey from here and see all that she will accomplish in the future.”
The new graduate, who plans to enroll in Norfolk State University this fall, wants to become a counselor to help others navigate difficult experiences.
