‘The Power of Prayer’: Longview family thankful for recovery of son after horrific car accident
LONGVIEW, Texas (KETK) – In the summer of 2023 Jacoby Norris was in a tragic crash just a few miles from home leaving him in a coma, now he is on the road to recovery.
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The Norris family said even when doctors didn’t think he was going to make it, their faith told them he will wake up one day.
“Thank you God,” Jacoby said.
The saying has been ever present in the Norris household a year after Jacoby was in a horrific car accident in Gregg County.
“He was at a standstill waiting to take a left, he was hit in the back by a truck and it pushed him to ongoing traffic and then he was T-boned by another truck,” said Lucretia Norris, his mother.
The scene was horrific, Jacoby was unconscious and flown to a hospital. He had a broken neck, collapsed lung and bleeding in his brain.
“One doctor was saying for me to get ready; she didn’t think he was going to make it. I said ‘you’re not going to tell me my son’s not going to make it,'” Lucretia said.
Jacoby ended up in coma and hooked up to machines, fighting for his life.
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“I was just talking to him. We couldn’t understand if he was understanding because his eyes were in a daze,” Lucretia said.
Seeing her son in that condition spurred her faith and she did the only thing she knew would work, prayer.
“One day I said, ‘God, please let my son breathe on his own,’ because he wasn’t and the next day came, he started breathing on his own,'” said Lucretia.
Lucretia was shocked but not surprised, constant prayer and gospel music was played in Jacoby’s ear every day of his coma until the day he woke up, three weeks later.
“I was saying ‘thank you, Jesus. thank you,'” said Lucretia Norris.
More than a year later, Jacoby is making a miraculous recovery. He was able to slowly move his hands, feet and sing his favorite gospel song.
“I never would have made it without you,” said Jacoby.
Even though many of his friends are in college, seeing familiar faces helps his recovery.
“I’ll go in there, we’ll joke, laugh, we’ll talk about all different things. I’ll put my son on face time so that they could talk and just his motivation helped, “said Ronecia Robinson, a family friend.
As a former football player at Tatum high school, he still wants to pursue that dream.
“He’s asking me, mom, can I go to college? Can I play football? I have to tell him it’s in God’s hands. It hits me, but I can’t tell him no, because I don’t know what he can and can’t do,” Lucretia said.
Jacoby has another dream, he would like to become a pastor, because he is a living testimony.
“He is truly an example of what God is able to do and a lot of times people would rather see a sermon than hear one. To see his resilience, to see how he has bounced back, to see how his faith has grown even at 20 years old is absolutely amazing,” said Richard Holloway, pastor at Pleasant Green Missionary Baptist Church.
After finally being discharged, the Norris family has been to church every Sunday, thanking God for the life of their son.
“Thank you, Jesus, God is good and I hate it happened, but they say, everything happens for a reason. I don’t understand the reason and I ask why. but [God] knows what he’s doing,” Lucretia said.
Jacoby has a long way to go, but nothing can compare to “the power of prayer.”
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