EDWARDSBURG — Just over four months ago, Ella Merrill’s family and friends witnessed her miraculous revival from a brain injury after her vehicle slid into a bus on an icy road. It was an injury that doctors thought might render her unconscious for the rest of her life.

Today, she has made significant progress in her road to recovery. Her walk is almost back to normal, she has one class left to take in order to get caught up on her school work and she has even won a few friendly tennis matches.

“I did have a tournament,” Ella said. “At our school we have a family and friends tournament and I played with one of my friends that is on the team and we did pretty well. We played three matches and I won two and lost one.”

Her goal is to be ready to play competitively by tennis season in the spring.

Ella is strong enough now that she no longer attends outpatient physical therapy. To improve her strength, she does more typical exercises at home, such as riding a stationary bike.

The last class she needs to take before her senior year begins in the fall is Algebra 2.

“I’m going to go into summer school just to get help on that because it’s math and the summer school teacher is my tennis coach, who also happens to also be a math teacher,” Ella said. “So it works out.”

The extra help is not necessary because of her brain injury. Even pre-injury math was a subject that she preferred to have extra help with — something that the online classes she has been taking do not provide.

There are cognitive areas where Ella is still improving, particularly her short term memory and when it comes to processing new information. She has learned to cope with this by taking extra notes and taking her time, but she says it has been frustrating.

“Because she had such a fast rate of healing, now her concern is has she plateaued,” said Heather Zile, Ella’s mother. “The doctors said, ‘absolutely not.’ It’s just that her recovery was so speedy in the beginning that it just feels that way.”

In the meantime, her mother has done her best to help her feel as normal as possible. That means less doctor visits and physical therapy and more structured responsibilities and time with family and friends.

Unfortunately, Ella will be unable to drive for at least the next nine months. Instead, she must rely on others.

“We were a little more selective in the beginning on who she could ride [in a car with], and I still make sure to tell everyone to drive well, no cell phones,” Zile said.

“Oh yeah, I even tell them in the car, ‘get off your phone,’” Ella said. “Sometimes I have to tell people a lot, ‘get off your phone. Do you know who you are in the car with?’”

She tries to use the her difficult experiences for good, and focus on the positive impact she can have. She and her mother have talked about hosting a running event to raise money for people who with traumatic brain injuries. They also are in contact with a family that is going through a similar experience. They hope Ella’s experiences can inspire the family and provide them with hope.

Her experiences are also why Ella will be honored at a South Bend Cubs game on Aug. 18.

“It’s with the South Bend Cubs and Memorial Hospital,” Zile said. “They are doing a spotlight on her healing and just all of the journey. … She has to run the bases, and they will tell her story.”

She will also be the Gala for the Ronald McDonald House in the fall.

“It’s to highlight the services of Memorial Hospital and the wonderful things that they did at Ronald McDonald House, and really get out to people what we have available in the area,” Zile said.

Ella and her mother are also appreciative of all that the community has done to support them, so they try to support those businesses and people as much as possible — whether that is by saying hello or making sure to stop a local business that hosted fundraisers on behalf of the family.

“The community has been so supportive that we, again, can’t thank people enough,” Zile said. “It’s been wonderful.”