It’s been 10 years this month since Ayauna Edwards Bush was shot three times in the head and left in Cuyahoga Valley National Park. She was found by runners and survived the shooting, but she was permanently blinded by the incident.
Bush recounted her journey Wednesday at the Akron Blind Center in Middlebury, where she’s been involved since she lost her vision. The center provides services and helps build community around the visually impaired, including for people like Bush who have been affected by gun violence.
Bush’s grandmother, Lisa Edwards, was the first in her family to identify Bush when she was in the hospital.
“I was at my friend’s house watching the news, and they said they found a lady but they don’t know who she is,” Edwards said Wednesday.
“They showed the clothes she had on, the shoes she had on. I looked at my friend and said, ‘That’s Ayauna.’ The clothes they showed — I just bought those shoes the other day.”
Bush made a miraculous recovery, but she faced obstacles in regaining some of her basic abilities.
“I had to take my first steps again,” Bush said. “I remember waking up in the hospital and they told me I couldn’t walk. I wiggled my toes and was like, ‘I feel them.’ I felt my thighs and said, ‘I feel my legs.’ I got up anyway. I fell immediately … but I was gonna keep getting back up.”
A model of strength and community
Scott Reisberg, the center’s executive director, calls himself the “inspired” director because of how many stories of strength and recovery surround him.
“We get together and we have classes, and we teach things like Braille and technology,” Reisberg said. “But the real important thing is people being able to be together in a place where others get what they’re going through.”
Part of that community is achieved through a mentorship component, where the center pairs younger or recently impaired adults with someone who has experience navigating vision issues.
“I challenged a new member that whatever they’re going through — shock, anger, denial, negotiations, depression — after you become a member here, in the future the challenge is for you to become a mentor for someone else,” Reisberg said.
That’s what Bush experienced, and it’s why she was back to share her story — to encourage her peers.
“If it wasn’t for what I went through, I would not have the discernment that I have today,” Bush said. “Look where we’re at. Not just me — everybody in here has overcome something so difficult, so tough, something that other people cannot imagine overcoming.”
Bush’s two sons were on either side of her as she recounted her history.
“I used to cry that ‘I’m never going to be able to see them again.’ It’s so amazing how I can touch my sons, give them hugs, imagine their smile and still feel just as close to them.”