Jay Briscoe’s daughter Gracie Pugh shares her recovery story

Gracie Pugh, daughter of the late Jay Briscoe, recently shared her story of recovery.

The Central Worship Center in Laurel, Delaware, posted a video of Gracie talking about her life since a car accident took the life of her father, as well as the driver of another vehicle, on January 17, 2023. The accident also caused serious injuries to Gracie and her sister.

“My dad was Jamin Pugh. He was a professional wrestler, so some of you might know him,” Gracie says in the video. “My dad was in wrestling for over 20 years, and a lot of people knew him. When we were out in public, everyone would know him and everyone always knew what we were doing and how we were.”

“Life was good and then January 17, 2023, in the morning, my dad woke us up for school, just a normal day. He brought us outside, he was so excited that there was this big rainbow outside. Then we went to school. It was a normal day. After school, we went to cheer practice, and we got into a car accident on the way to cheer practice.”

“Once we got to the car accident, I remember some dude just carrying me out of the car. I just remember my sister—I don’t remember seeing her, but I can remember hearing her. I remember seeing my dad in the truck. After that, we went to the hospital, and my mom came in there and she just told me how there were so many people there and everyone was praying for us already.”

Gracie had to learn to use her legs again. She made progress over time and continued to make progress even after doctors had said her nerves would stop regaining ability.

Gracie continued:

“I had no feeling or movement in my legs for two weeks and then it slowly started to come back. I could kick my leg, and I could stand but with a lot of support. Then I started to take first steps with this big walker and these big braces on my legs. Slowly, I had to just work a lot and then a lot of more movement and just capability for me to do stuff came back.”

“After a while of therapy, I started to try and take steps at home. I took my first few steps, and I knew right then that I could actually begin to walk again, run again, do whatever I wanted and just make a full recovery.”

“The doctors explained to me that after a year, your nerves kind of stop regaining any ability to do things again. Once I hit a year, I was like done, like I can’t do it anymore, and then my mom and my family just was like, ‘No, you can. You don’t listen to the doctors.’ And then I kept pushing, and even a year and a half after, I could start to jog again and then tried to tumble more, and even two weeks ago, I could go back up on my toes, which was something I couldn’t do for this whole period of time.”

Gracie credits her family, friends, and faith for helping her get through.

“I just had to trust in God to just keep letting me recover fully from it. I just had to remember that my dad would never want me to be in a wheelchair, would never want any of us to be sad about this situation. He would just want us to keep pushing through, following God and what he has planned for us.”

“When I think of my story, I just think of even when everyone tells you that you can’t, you just gotta remember that God can help you get through anything.”

The full video is available below: