(WXYZ) — 12-year-old Julia Wallace of Roseville is clinging to life this morning after being hit by a car near her school last Tuesday.
Julia was crossing the street to get to Roseville Middle School when she was struck by a car in an area that doesn't have many crosswalks or a crossing guard.
Julia's aunt says this all could have been prevented.
Family and friends gathered at Veterans Memorial Park Sunday night to honor her.
"The nurses and the doctors are not giving up. Not giving up hope. Exhausting all options to get her treatments. Wean her off the sedation," Julia's aunt Julianne Deblauwe said.
She says the family is hanging in there, but it is difficult to see Julia in pain.
"I kind of feel like I am floating," Deblauwe said. "I just want her to get better."
In such a dark time, community support is everything. Deblauwe says sometimes you need to borrow strength from others when you feel like you can no longer stand.
"People who don't even know us are reaching out," she said. "It takes my breath away to know that there are so many good people when there is so much bad happening in our world right now."
Deblauwe hopes the power of collective prayer will bring Julia home.
She says her niece was musically gifted, smart, and a rising star.
"Wake up and recover would be the blessing of a lifetime. It would be the miracle we've been waiting for."
Deblauwe says Julia did start taking some breaths on her own but had to be put under sedation again.
The deputy police chief says he's meeting with city engineers and the Department of Public Works to not only improve safety at the site of the incident but at all Roseville schools.
Police say they have secured the necessary funding to make those safety changes.
