19 years after escaping death, Miracle Tisdale plans on being a nurse — inspired by the community who lent aid and her family’s endurance

NEED TO KNOW

• In 2007, Rose Smith was shot four times while pregnant and told she’d never walk again

• Her daughter Miracle, who survived both the shooting and subsequent surgery, recently graduated high school with honors and a full scholarship
• Miracle plans to become a nurse inspired by her mother’s resilience and years of helping care for her at home

On May 27, 2007, Rose Smith was returning home from the grocery store to prepare her signature turkey dish for Memorial Day Weekend when she was involved in a drive-by shooting.

As she scrambled from her car towards her house, Smith was hit four times — once in her left jaw, twice in her left arm and once in her spine — before she collapsed on her doorstep. She was three months pregnant at the time, which most of her own family didn’t even know.

“At that moment, everything flashed in front of me,” Smith tells PEOPLE. “I just started pleading to God praying, ‘Don’t let me die. Don’t let me die.’ I still had a lot of life ahead of me.”

Smith was taken to the hospital, where doctors told her she’d never be able to walk again and that fixing her shattered jaw would require a risky surgery. They told her it was a 50-50 chance that her baby survived the operation in her womb.

“I came out with my mouth wired shut and the baby had a heartbeat,” remembers Smith. “That was actually a blessing in itself, for [her] to have a heartbeat after she got out.”

Six months later, when Smith delivered her baby daughter via cesarean section, it was clear what the infant’s name had to be.

“It was for the moment,” Smith says of her daughter Miracle. “It’s self-explanatory.”

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Now 18, Miracle Tisdale is living up to her moniker. The teenager just graduated from Mary Star of the Sea, a Catholic high-school in Los Angeles, as a four-year Principal’s Honor Roll scholar and team captain of her traveling cheerleading team.

She’s set to attend California State University, Fullerton, in the fall with plans to become a registered nurse — a career inspired by her mom’s resilience and the kindness and perseverance she learned in childhood.

“I look at her and I’m overwhelmed every day,” says Smith. “I see her growing into the beautiful, independent woman that she is.”

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Surviving the shooting was just the start for Smith, now 42, and her family. While pregnant with Miracle, she had to regain mobility in her left arm and learn to use a wheelchair as she cared for two toddlers with her boyfriend.

“I was just angry. I didn’t do anything to deserve that,” says Smith of the shooting, which was never solved. The mom of three still suffers from muscle spasms and other side effects.

She credits her three kids, including Mariah, 21, and Tyrin Jr., 20, as her motivation — especially her youngest.

“She sticks by me through the good, the bad, the ugly,” Smith says. “She’s stood through it all.”

“There are certain times where I end up back in the hospital with my disability,” she continues, noting that she’s back every six months or so. “And it’s a battle for [Miracle] and she’s just definitely strong-minded. She’s definitely a leader.”

When she was in third grade, Miracle became interested in nursing. After caring for her mother for years, the teenager was keen to help others.

“I already know how to do basic [skills],” says Miracle, who regularly assists with her mother’s care, including with shopping and bathing.

After graduating eighth grade, a police office who was on her family’s case got back in touch and connected Miracle with Operation Progress, an L.A. police Department partnership with the organization Strive that offers mentoring and scholarships. Eventually, that connection led to a full ride at her private school.

In the beginning, Miracle says she felt like an outsider at the new school.

“I think it was a learning curve,” says Miracle. “At first, I felt like I didn’t belong there because I didn’t really know people.” But slowly, Miracle found her footing, and made friends who “became sisters and family to me.”

This past May, Miracle graduated from high school with her mom in the audience. Smith admits that seeing her daughter cross the stage was emotional.

“So much went through my mind because it took so much energy, so many sacrifices,” she says. “There were long days, there were stressful days, but through it all we made it through and that was the moment I prayed to God to see.”

“I was just praying to get through to see that moment and the four years, it went by so fast and that moment went by so fast,” continues Smith. “I was just trying to soak up the moment.”

As she gets ready to leave for college in August, Miracle says she’s both excited and a bit nervous to see what her next new school brings. But she’s heading into this next phase of life with her family’s mantra.

“All things happen for a reason. That’s how I look at things now,” she says.

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