Tabatha Wade-Collier is a woman who defies the odds.
Today, she graduates with an associated degree from Cuyahoga Community College.
But it took her 26 years to get here.
“I had a lot of different obstacles and struggles to overcome,” she said. “It was definitely hard.”
In 1985, Tabatha graduated from high school and enrolled in Kent State. But after she learned she was pregnant, she dropped out of school started work at a factory.
After 15 years on the job, the company closed down. On top of losing her job, the then-single mom was diagnosed with pulmonary fibrosis, a condition that damaged and scarred her lungs.
Louis Collier, her husband and Cleveland police officer, said the condition was unbearable.
Tabatha struggled with the condition so bad, she could barely breathe. At one point, she was on oxygen 24 hours a day. The only way she could restore her health would be through a lung transplant.
Then, she got a call. A lung was available.
“When she had the transplant in 2004, she was in a coma, a drug-induced coma,” Louis said. “I was there by her side for six months. I saw what she was going through. It’s a 100 percent turnaround”
Tabatha spent six months in the hospital and a year in the recovery stage.
“I’m proud. I’m very proud of her,” Louis said. “She’s amazing. She’s my miracle.”
Tabatha was determined to give back to those who helped her along the way.
“Determination, my husband,” she said. “I just could not stop because somebody died in order for me to live, so I could be a mother, a sister, a wife, a daughter to my parents. And I wanted to have that to give back to somebody else.
“I have no oxygen. I’m getting ready to graduate. I have my life back,” she said.
Now at 44 years old, Tabatha plans to go to Notre Dame College and study to become a transplant nurse. She hopes her experience will connect with patients.
“I think it’ll be a plus on both sides. Sometimes you get discouraged, depressed, you’re in denial,” she said. “As a nurse, I can really relate. I can tell them the depression, how the struggle is going to be, what to expect.
“I’m determined to fight it through, whatever it takes, to become this transplant nurse to go back and help them out.”