A local beauty queen is making her comeback to the pageant world five years after she was in a horrific car crash.
Tracy Rodgers was one week away from competing in Ms. United States in 2011 when she broke more than 20 bones in a crash near Moapa.
Now she is set to compete in the Ms. America pageant in September.
"For a while I thought that dream is gone and now I know that no, it's within reach," Rodgers said. "Anything you want is within reach."
Her pageant platform is "Your tomorrow starts today," because she's learned the hard way just how precious each moment is.
The road to recovery was long and grueling, consisting of 29 surgeries over three and a half years.
"Life as I knew it came to a screeching halt, literally," Rodgers said.
What hurt most, she says, was missing key moments in her two sons' lives, losing the chance to be the mother she wanted to be.
The boys remain her greatest motivation.
"They are the reason why I get up every morning and brush yourself off and you do the day all over again, regardless of how hard of a day it is," Rodgers said.
There have certainly been hard days and there will be more ahead.
Tracy Rodgers is more ready for all of it than she's ever been.
