Driving up and down the streets of South Tampa, everyone spots the classic green and pink signs that say “Pray for Jackie.” Even people who are just passing through the area know the story of Jackie Faircloth and her accident last November in 2014.

        In the last year, Jackie went from being Comatose after being involved in a hit and run accident at Florida State University to being able to answer questions by pointing and participating in therapy to regain skills that she possessed before the accident.

        In the next couple weeks, Jackie is coming home to Tampa from Atlanta. She has been staying at the Shepherd Center in Atlanta. Ranked in the top 10 medical facilities in the country, it specializes in brain and spinal injuries. While her injury doesn’t involve her spinal cord, the center has been helping with her brain injury.

        At the Shepherd Center, Jackie has a board, similar to like a homework board in a class room that has all of her schedule written down. She has therapy for hand movement, walking, and eating every day.

        At the center, she needs medicine every day and there is not a lot of down time. Jackie works really hard because she wants to get better as well, which helps her therapists to be even more helpful.

“Brain injuries take a long time to recover from, but she has made miraculous gains because she is a fighter,” Kathy Faircloth, Jackie’s mom, said.

        Jackie’s parents said that she is planning to come home in early November.

        “I think the hardest part about having Jackie come home will be all of the adjustments, like having someone in our house 24/7 for her medical needs,” Kathy Faircloth, said.

        Both of her parents reiterated that Jackie’s homecoming will be scary because everything is so unpredictable. However, they have had the strength of the community to help with all of this, especially the Plant community.

        “We will have to make many adjustments to our home, by making it handicap accessible, and we made a new bedroom and therapy room for our house,” John Faircloth, Jackie’s father, said.

        Last June for Plant High School’s graduation for the class of 2015, Principal Rob Nelson, reserved a chair for Jackie. It has blue and pink ribbons, her favorite colors.

        “I thought this was a good idea since most of this class has grown up together since kindergarten and it brings out the uniqueness of Plant, the fact that we are a community school,” Nelson said.