Model shares faith, resilience after vehicle crash left her paralyzed from waist down

(InvestigateTV) — At 25, Diamond Jonise is dedicated to inspiring young people through her modeling career, though her path to the runway wasn’t easy.

After battling depression, she felt invisible. Everything changed one night two years ago on her birthday when a life-altering event tested her strength and resolve. It was then that her faith would guide her to an even bigger stage.

“I really had low self-esteem. I actually hated what I looked like,” said Jonise.

Throughout her teenage years, Diamond would share looks on social media. She began taking modeling seriously in college by actually booking jobs and working with agents.

By 23, Diamond was entrenched in the fashion world and invited on the trip of a lifetime to New York Fashion Week. A 23-hour journey that began in Houston in an RV with seven others.

“We’re on our way to New York, and like, everybody’s excited and it just felt like we were about to embark on, like, the time of our lives,” said Jonise.

But the ill-fated trip would end in tragedy with a terrible crash on a dark Virginia highway.

“I remember just getting in the bunk and opening the window, and I laid back and I went to sleep,” said Jonise.

Diamond woke up in a hospital ICU. Two other passengers were killed. Her life was changed forever.

“My back broke in half,” Jonise said.

She was paralyzed from the waist down.

“No one really had to tell me, like, I already knew, like, I can’t walk. I can’t feel. The question is…for how long,” Jonise added.

“It’s been a roller coaster of emotions for me to say the least,” said Demeka Underwood who rushed to her daughter Diamond’s bedside in Virginia.

Tisha Powell shares Diamond’s story.

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