NEWNAN, Ga. (WXIA) -- Megan Winters, the then-7-year-old girl who fell into an abandoned well in December 2013 and suffered multiple injuries, started another round of physical therapy on Thursday.
Her body is still broken, but not her spirit.
It was on Dec. 30, 2013 when Megan was playing with a cousin and two friends in her grandmother's yard in Whitesburg, in Carroll County, and she climbed onto the edge of the old, stone well that was supposed to have a steel grate across the top. Megan slipped and fell, feet first, 50 feet to the bottom. She was severely injured from head to toe.
As soon as Carroll County firefighters arrived, they rigged up a pulley system with ropes, and an hour later lowered Lt. Clay Kierbow into the well, and he gently pulled her out.
Since then, Megan's been on a roller-coaster of recovery.
"I call her my miracle child," said Megan's mother, Melissa Winters, "and she always says, 'Mom, don't call me that.' But that's exactly what she is, to me."
Megan's memories, like her injuries -- especially her badly broken left leg -- linger.
"Whenever I got down to the bottom, it was, like, wet and dark where I couldn't see anything...."
She's told the story countless times, patiently and in detail.
And it's her spirit -- laughing, now, about losing one of her favorite shoes in the accident -- that is able to call up a warrior from somewhere deep inside her, pushing her to get better.
And for a few months in 2014, she was getting better.
She was running again, and rock climbing, "and playing soccer," she quickly adds.
As she sat on the couch in her Newnan home on Thursday, she reached for her official soccer team photo, and showed it, proudly, to her visitor. She was the team's goalie.
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But then, this past December, almost a year after her accident, doctors detected a problem in her left leg, and in January had to operate again.
"Her leg was not growing the way it should be," Melissa said, "her right leg would continue to grow normally, and her left leg was not growing."
Melissa said doctors told them that Megan's surgery has a 50 to 70 percent chance of fixing her left leg so it can grow normally.
Megan the warrior has already worked out her plan.
"In about three weeks, I am going to be able to put my left foot down, and I'll be able to learn how to walk," she said with a serious face and without a trace of doubt.
Prayers continue to pour in from around the world on Melissa's Facebook page, a journal of Megan's recovery.
Melissa said that it is Megan who keeps her going, with hope, in faith -- like when Megan received some Christmas money this past December, and used it to buy Melissa a charm, with a cross and the word "Faith" engraved on it.
"You know, the fact that my eight year old will spend her own money to make sure I had something for Christmas, and that she chose something that said "Faith," because she knows that that's what's getting me through, is my faith in her and my faith in God -- she's an amazing child. She has the strength that defies her age."
So, just ask Megan -- how does she keep from getting discouraged?
She takes a few seconds to think of how she wants to answer.
And from this warrior, who is 8, going on 9 -- the wisdom of the ages wells up from her spirit.
"I would think of happy thoughts, and I would say, you have to keep trying. And keep trying. Don't give up. I always say, don't give up. Even whenever tough times hurt you, never give up."
She takes a breath, and smiles.
Link: Melissa Winters' Facebook Page --
"Megan Winters Prayers" https://www.facebook.com/megan.wintersprayers/timeline
Follow Jon Shirek on Twitter: @JonShirek
