The first miracle of Miracle Tisdale’s life took place before she was even born.
The day was May 27, 2007. Her father and pregnant mother, Rose, were bringing groceries for a Memorial Day barbecue into their home in the Nickerson Gardens housing projects in Watts.
A gunman drove by and opened fire. Running from the hail of bullets, Rose reached for the door of the house, where her two children were inside. Four bullets hit her: one in the spine, another in the jaw, and two in her left arm.
When Rose was rushed to the hospital, the doctors didn’t know that their patient was three months pregnant. In fact, not even her family knew.
The bullet to the spine would leave Rose paralyzed from the waist down.
“I remember that the doctor came in and told me that I would never walk again,” said Rose. “I thought my life would be over because no one ever knew that I was actually three months pregnant.”
Before the surgery to repair her shattered jaw, the doctor told her the child inside her had a 50% chance of surviving. When she awoke, Rose received the news: there was a heartbeat.
Six months later, there was no question about what to name the baby girl.
“It was obvious, self-explanatory,” said Rose. “Both of us are miracles. And God has seen us through, because she has no ailment, no disability, no ailment, nothing wrong with her.”
Almost 19 years later to the day after the shooting, a smiling young woman named Miracle was called to the stage at Mary Star of the Sea High School’s graduation ceremony. A four-year Principal’s Honor Roll scholar and a star cheerleader, it’s safe to say Miracle hadn’t just survived. She triumphed.
“I took this and made something better out of it,” said Miracle in an interview before her graduation. “You can’t let one thing stop you. Keep going, never give up.”
Miracle’s unlikely path to Mary Star of the Sea began with an officer who’d responded that day of the shooting and stayed in touch with Rose and her family over the years. He introduced them to Operation Progress, a partnership with the LAPD that offers mentoring and scholarships to inner-city youth. Thanks to her strong grades, Miracle was selected for the program in the eighth grade.
Starting freshman year, every morning at 7 a.m., Rose would drive Miracle from their home in the Westmont area of South LA to the offices of Strive, an organization that partners with Operation Progress to transport scholarship students from Watts to their high schools. From there, two vans would take Miracle and a handful of others to Mary Star of the Sea, a small Catholic high school in a leafy corner of San Pedro.
The transition from South LA public school to a private school in the South Bay wasn’t easy at first. A talented cheerleader who had competed with travel teams, Miracle was starting from zero.
“When she got here, she was intimidated,” recalled Rick Ibarra, a longtime sports coach and librarian at Mary Star — and one of Miracle’s bus drivers. “She was always one of the quieter ones.”
Besides not knowing anyone, the academic level was higher than anything Miracle was used to. Principal Rita Dever remembered her being overwhelmed at first. But her determination quickly paid off. By the time Miracle received the Principal’s Honor Roll for the first time, something had changed.
“To be awarded that with all the top students in front of her class, I think she started to feel like, ‘I am really fitting in, I’m at the top of my class,’ ” said Dever.
A few years into high school, Miracle was persuaded to join Mary Star’s cheerleading squad, bringing veteran experience to a school not known as an athletic powerhouse.
“She’s done everything she can to put herself in a position for success, with her work ethic and with her study habits,” said Ibarra.
In middle school, Miracle had struggled through long stretches of isolation and remote learning during the COVID-19 lockdown. At Mary Star, she found motivation.
“It’s the people in my corner, my supporters, I didn’t want to let them down,” Miracle told Angelus. “I don’t want to let myself down, and I just know how I want my future to look.”
That future included a career in nursing. Miracle had always been a fan of nursing TV shows, and comes from a family of nurses, including her grandmother and two aunts.
Meanwhile, few people on campus knew her story. Even as she became friends with Ibarra riding shotgun in the Strive van, the conversations were more often about Miracle’s cheerleading competitions.
Ibarra had no idea until one day he saw Rose — who drives with the help of a specially modified car — dropping off her daughter. He asked Miracle about her handicap.
“When she told me her story, I was in amazement,” said Ibarra. “I could have never guessed. She always had it together, she had goals, she had plans, she was organized, she seemed like she always got her stuff done.”
Raised Baptist, Miracle has also come to appreciate the school’s Catholic faith life, with its daily prayer schedule, religion classes, and retreats. She credits her relationship with God with helping her get through a particularly stressful period brought on by a demanding level of classwork.
“I talked to God a lot, I had plenty of conversations, I prayed, I cried,” said Miracle. “God was always in my life, He’s always been there.”
As she watched her daughter take the graduation stage last month, Rose’s mind raced through the miracles of the last 19 years.
“That moment let me know that God is real, and he will see us through,” said Rose, who still suffers from bouts of pain and illness related to the shooting.
Now that Miracle has graduated with a 4.3 GPA, she has her sights on a nursing career. This fall, she’ll attend Cal State Fullerton before possibly transferring to a larger university. Hers is another success story attributed to programs like Strive, created to give students like Miracle a sense of community, a safer high school experience, and a shot at a better future.
“I think this school was great for Miracle, and I think Miracle was great for our school,” said Ibarra.
Among those who graduated with Miracle at Mary Star last month was a fellow Strive student who lost a parent to a gang-related murder. Their tuition is covered by a combination of scholarships from Mary Star, Strive, and the Catholic Education Foundation (CEF), which provides millions of dollars in scholarships for students in more than 200 Catholic schools in the Archdiocese of LA.
Dever believes that partnerships with organizations like Strive — and stories like Miracle’s — reflect the deeper mission of Catholic education.
“I think it’s what we’re called to do; it ties in beautifully,” said Dever. “We’re giving opportunity to kids who want a Catholic education. Miracle is not Catholic, but she has very strong faith and a very deep love for God, and that’s been nurtured here.”
Over the years, Rose and Miracle have teamed to visit different churches and community events to tell their story and advocate against gun violence. Rose admits that her youngest daughter going off to college will not be easy for her, but trusts that God will keep her safe and guide her decisions.
“She took a major step out on faith, going to a Catholic school away from her friends, where she didn’t know anyone,” said Rose. “When I saw that she completed that, it just goes to show she’s determined, she has perseverance, she’s resilient, and she’s gonna keep going.”
