The darkest of pasts makes her future all the more bright

Brittney Himel fidgeted in her wheelchair, rocking back on the tires while simultaneously lifting a friendly dachshund into her lap.

She traded playful wisecracks with her little brother, James, and talked about her love of animals and life in general. In a few hours she would join the Class of 2010 for the Centennial High School graduation ceremony, an event that only a few years earlier must have seemed so improbable.

Brittney's 18 now. She's beautiful, strong and increasingly independent. She long ago made the transition into using the wheelchair. Like every other challenge in her extraordinary life, it hasn't slowed her down.

By now Las Vegans are familiar with the story of the courageous 10-year-old paralyzed in a vicious knife attack that killed her 3-year-old sister, Kristyanna, in January 2003 at a Mesquite RV park. Back then she was known as Brittney Bergeron.

When Brittney left the hospital, she entered the home of Judy and Bill Himel, who have fostered dozens of local children with extreme needs. The Himels fought to protect Brittney and eventually won the right to adopt her as their daughter.

Talk about an ideal fit. Brittney and her parents share a love of animals and the outdoors. On weekends, Brittney rides the family mule and goes off-roading on her Arctic Cat four-wheeler. A wallflower she ain't.

To see this young woman, so bright and healthy, it's hard to imagine she wasn't always this way.

Nurse Catherine Hoffman has been part of the Himel household for more than a decade. She will never forget the day they brought home Brittney. The child who had somehow survived stab wounds to the spine was so delicate, so damaged. In many ways healing those physical wounds was the easy part.

"It was pretty tough," Hoffman said, her eyes misting at the memory. "She needed a lot. I know she was traumatized, a lot of spasms, a lot of nightmares. She was 10 years old, scared of the dark. She was afraid of everybody."

"I was scared of everything," Brittney said.

"Even me," James added. At 13, he's a willow-thin wisenheimer born with fetal alcohol syndrome and possessed of better comic timing than Leno.

"I remember when I used to wake up in the middle of the night and I would just be screaming," Brittney recalled. "She (the nurse) would come in and say, 'What's wrong? What's wrong?' I'd say, 'I don't know!'"

With time, caring professionals, the love of a family and many pets, Brittney was able to put the nightmares behind her.

She does not live in the past.

But speaking of animals, the Himel menagerie continues to grow on its property outside Las Vegas.

"My dad's thinking about getting a couple horses," Brittney said. "I want a black sheep and a goat. My mom wants to get a cow."

"And I want to get a pig!" James interjected.

"And James wants a pig," Brittney replied.

"And I want to name it Brittney!" James said, cracking up.

"And I want to get a donkey and name it James," Brittney said, laughing. "I love you, James."

Sister and brother laughed and traded one-liners, and soon it was time for me to go. Did she want me to give people a message about her life?

"Nothing in the past can be changed, so why dwell on the past?" Brittney said. "Look at your future because the more you spend worrying about your past, the more you're probably going to ruin your future.

"You can't go back to yesterday, so you have to live for the day that you have. We don't know if that's going to end today, tomorrow or whenever. You do have to live for today."

Armed with that wisdom and a loving family, Brittney Himel lives for each day and keeps moving forward.

John L. Smith's column appears Sunday, Tuesday, Wednesday and Friday. E-mail him at Smith@reviewjournal.com or call 702-383-0295. He also blogs at lvrj.com/blogs/smith.