It has been seven days since Maya, just 12 years old, was shot in the head during a school mass shooting in Canada.
Seven days since her family’s world shattered.
Now, her mother is sharing small but meaningful updates — the kind that feel like flickers of light cutting through an incredibly dark week.
The first days, she says, were chaos.
A rollercoaster.
A tsunami of fear and uncertainty.
Now, it feels different.
“Numbness… still water,” her mother wrote.
But here is the important shift:
Maya has been moved into a recovery unit.
Not a room prepared for goodbye.
A room focused on healing.
“To me, this is acknowledgement that she is fighting and refuses to quit.”
Doctors say there is still no movement on her right side. They are comparing her condition to that of a stroke survivor and have warned that function may never return. It’s a sentence no parent is prepared to hear — and one her mother admits she does not yet have the strength to argue.
“I would prefer to argue, of course… however, I don’t think I have that in me at this time.”
And yet, her faith remains steady.
She reads the messages sent from strangers around the world. She reads them aloud to Maya — even when Maya cannot respond.
“Just know that the stories, the love, the support and admiration for our powerhouse of a girl is not lost. I see you. We feel you.”
This is where community matters.
What would you say to a 12-year-old girl who is still here — still fighting — after doctors once feared she wouldn’t be?
If you would like to send a card, a prayer, a drawing — something her mother can tape to the walls surrounding her hospital bed — you can mail it to:
Maya
Unit 304 – 827 W 16th St
North Vancouver, BC V7P 1R2
Canada
In moments like this, words matter.
Encouragement matters.
Hope matters.
And somewhere inside a recovery unit, a 12-year-old girl is still fighting — one breath, one day at a time.
