Hometown Heroes: Young crash survivor, 8 years later

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It's been a few years since we've seen Summer Moll and her grandma Tammy.

"I sort of went missing in action for two years. It was time for us to focus on ourselves," said Tammy.  

Taking care of your pre-teen granddaughter is a big job. That's right, Summer is 12 years old.

"She's going to middle school next year. Scary," said Tammy.

Summer has come a long way since we first saw her eight years ago laying lifeless in a hospital bed after a horrible accident that killed her mother, and left Summer hanging on to life.

"They pretty much said she wasn't going to make it. But she proved everybody wrong," said Tammy.

Summer still has her struggles; her brain injury makes learning tough. 

"She's probably about first grade level right now, and she's going into sixth grade. So that's a huge difference," explained Tammy.

But she tries hard and always gives it 100 percent.

"This year on her report card she brought her B's up to A's and her C's up to B's, so I can't complain," said Tammy.

Summer spends most of her free time with her grandma. When she's not at school, she's at the Post Sunshine Ranch daycare where Tammy works.

"This is the place where I get to bond with children because there are none in my neighborhood," said Summer.

Summer loves animals and helps take care of the goats, pig and bunnies on the ranch, but when there are no kids to play with or animals to pet, her grandma is never far away.

"She is my best friend," said Summer.

Taking care of Summer is a round-the-clock job, but Tammy wouldn't have it any other way. In fact, she officially adopted Summer in 2012, and changed her name to Summer Rosian.

"We spend a lot of time together. We don't have arguments or anything like that, which is surprising because with my daughter- we argued all the time," said Tammy.

Tammy is still mourning her daughter, Jennifer O'Boyle.

"I started grieving about two years ago. It finally caught up with me," said Tammy.

And while she's grateful for all the support she's received from the community, she asks for some space and privacy so her family can heal.

"Every time there's a wrong way crash my phone is ringing off the hook, but what they don't understand is I'm reliving it every time," said Tammy.

Instead of having the constant reminder of her daughter's death she'd rather, for Summer's sake, keep the memory of Summer's mom alive.