SOUTH FAYETTE, Pa. — A day that the parents of a girl severely injured in a 2003 accident never thought they would see finally came to be Friday night, as their daughter graduated from South Fayette High School in Pennsylvania.
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"She was always very independent and stubborn, and I think that's what's helped her. She doesn't give up easy," Bob McAuley, Ashley McAuley's father, said.
Since 2003, Ashley hasn't been able to take part in any activities that her classmates have done.
"She was born a perfectly normal child and this accident happened when she was 5 years old," Bob McAuley said.
When Ashley was in kindergarten, a garage door came down on her neck, pinning her for almost five minutes. Her parents said she's been in a wheelchair ever since, unable to walk or speak.
"If she didn't have her accident, she would've graduated from South Fayette this year. So that kind of tears at my heart knowing she's not like Sean and going to go onto college," Kim McAuley said.
But Friday night, as her former classmates put on their caps and gowns to prepare for graduation from South Fayette High School, so did Ashley.
"I found it rather touching. They remembered her and wanted her to be up there with what would've been her classmates," Bob McAuley said.
"The school called and wanted to know if Ashley wanted to be a part of South Fayette's graduation, and I said, 'Well I'll ask her, and I'll let you know,' and when I asked her, she smiled big," Kim McAuley said.
In the 12 years since her tragic accident, life has changed for the McAuleys, but Friday night served as a bittersweet moment as they watched Ashley take the stage at graduation.
"They were tremendous right after the accident, the South Fayette community and Pittsburgh area also, and occasionally they would touch base with us, and they never seemed to forget her," Bob McAuley said.