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Terry Newman: Maya Gebala has become everyone's daughter

The thoughts and prayers of Canadians, and people around the world, are with the young Tumbler Ridge victim who's fighting for her life

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On the morning of Feb. 10, Maya Gebala left home and headed to Tumbler Ridge Secondary School, excited to get to work on a class project. She was a tenacious hockey player who played defence for the Tumbler Ridge Raptors, an outgoing, blue-eyed girl with a big smile living a normal life. But that normal life would end a few hours later.

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Jesse Van Rootselaar came to the school that day with a modified rifle, a long gun and murderous intent. Van Rootselaar had already killed two family members at home, then shot someone in a school stairwell before going to the library, where Maya and other children were gathered.

Terry Newman: Maya Gebala has become everyone's daughter Back to video

Witnesses said she tried to lock the door to keep the shooter out. She was shot while hiding under a table, hit in the head and throat.

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Eight innocents died that day, but Maya did not. She was taken to the hospital, barely clinging to life. The doctors were blunt with her mother, Cia Edmonds.

“We were warned that the damage to her brain was too much for her to endure, and she wouldn’t make the night,” Edmonds wrote on Facebook the day after the shootings.

But Maya’s story was not over. This ordinary girl rallied with extraordinary tenacity.

On Day 3, the swelling went down. On Day 5, her mom said her eyes were starting to flutter. On Day 7, her mom said Maya had been moved into recovery, but there was still no movement on her right side.

But progress has not been steady. Maya underwent emergency surgery to relieve fluid build-up on her brain on Day 11.

Things were quiet for a while as Maya’s prognosis was unclear.

Edmonds and Maya’s father, David Gebala, have shared photos of her from before the tragedy and introduced us to a girl with a rock’n’roll sensibility who’s fast on her skates.

We see her at age 10 singing “Livin’ on a Prayer.” We see her father teaching her how to drive a stick shift. We see her mother holding her shortly after she was born. We see her in happier times with her little sister and we see her little sister now standing by Maya’s bedside, the uncertainty etched into her face.

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Edmonds told those watching Maya’s journey on Facebook: “Just know that … the love, the support and admiration for our powerhouse of a girl is not lost. I see you. We feel you.”

The whole world appeared to hold its breath along with Maya’s parents for word of her recovery. Then, on Feb. 28, Maya’s mother shared a video of her lying in her bed watching her favourite TV show about a teenage superhero, “Henry Danger.”

On March 6, Maya’s breathing tube was finally removed, an experience her mother described as terrifying, with Maya wincing as she held her hand.

Last week, her father shared another promising update: the incision on her head was healing, she was sitting up in her chair and becoming more responsive to eye tracking and the requests from neurosurgeons for her to squeeze their hands.

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Maya has also been using two paddles that her mother made, one that says “yes” and another that says “no,” to communicate. On Saturday, her parents shared a picture of Maya outside in the sun, covered in a blanket with the paddles resting on her lap.

Loving support for Maya rolled in from every direction. People from around the world sent the family cards and packages and have been posting prayers for Maya on social media. The Edmonton Oilers sent her a jersey emblazoned with her name. The Vancouver Canucks’ Brock Boeser recorded a message for Maya, telling her, “From one hockey player to another, we’re all thinking about you and rooting for you.”

Maya’s parents know the entire country is pulling for their little girl, and they understand that has power. Maya’s story has become a beacon of hope and light in a very dark moment following an unspeakable and inexplicable tragedy.

In a world full of tragedy and evil, humans instinctively seek the rare moments of resilience and survival.

Terry Fox’s journey ended tragically, but we remember him as a triumphant young man who found the will to inspire a nation and raise money for cancer research, step by painful step.

Maya’s story echoes that of Malala Yousafzai, a Pakistani girl who sought a forbidden education under the Taliban and was shot in the head in 2012. Both girls were confronted by evil and fought back. Yousafzai was just 15 when she was attacked, but won the Nobel Peace Prize two years later and became a symbol of girls’ empowerment.

Maya has a long way to go. But Canadians and people all over the world are hoping and praying for her and there is power in that.

“Please keep her in your thoughts,” her cousin wrote on Maya’s GoFundMe page in late February. “I believe it’s helped her this far.”

As a mother of a 13-year-old who’s battling melanoma and recently went into remission, I can tell you that there is nothing darker in this world than the thought that you may outlive one of your children. Maya is one of millions of Canadian kids, but she is now everyone’s daughter.

National Posttnewman@postmedia.comTwitter.com/TLNewmanMTL

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