Positivity: ‘Miracle’ survivor receives First Communion from her father
June 8, 2007
At 7-years-old, Roxann Peters already has much wisdom about life and how to truly live it. Whether it is a sleigh riding during the winter or a bike ride in the spring, those moments for Roxann are done with extra special joy. Even more special to her was receiving first Holy Communion last month at St. Clement’s here. It was a day she looked forward to with much happiness and excitement.
And while these moments may seem so ordinary to other children, they were almost non-existent for the second-grader after surviving massive brain injuries and a broken neck in a car accident June 2, 2006.
Her father, Vincent Peters, who is a extraordinary minister of Holy Communion at St. Clement’s, said he knows it was God who was there for Roxann and is responsible for her survival. He had the joy to give the Eucharist to his daughter at her First Holy Communion.
“She always wanted to make her First Holy Communion and by the grace of God she did,†said Peters, who is thankful for the faithful support of his parish, family and friends from around the diocese and even around the world.
A fateful day
According to Peters, the accident occured on Route 46 in Rockaway Borough. Roxann’s mother, MaryAnn, was driving Roxann and two of her siblings in a mini-van to school when a car slammed into the Peters’ vehicle right where Roxann was sitting. All the passengers were wearing their seatbelts.
While Roxann’s mother and siblings experienced several injuries, Roxann’s were considered extremely life-threatening and she was rushed to Morristown Memorial Hospital.
“It was very grave,†said Peters who recalls counting minute by minute the news on his little girl’s prognosis. The outlook was so bleak Roxann was given last rites.
Dorothy Halloran, Roxanne’s grandmother, remembers the phone call she received with news that the doctors had doubts whether her granddaughter would recover.
Immediately after the accident, Roxann’s family asked everyone for prayers for the child.
“Within hours, Father James Termyna (pastor of St. Clement) and Father Remigio Rocco (then pastor of St. Francis, Haskell, N.J., and now retired) a long time friend of the family were at the hospital to support our family. The Church just showed an outpouring of support for us,†said Peters.
While she was in a coma for two weeks and in intensive care for a month, slowly, Roxann was somehow pulling through and getting better proving to many that miracles are real.
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