Toria Newman was born in a little town in New Zealand. As a result of an unfortunate accident at 8 days old, she now has Cerebral Palsy. However, this has never worried Toria. She has always had a happy attitude to life. To help her become more independent, Toria spent most of the first ten years of her life in hospital. Now, Toria was very curious and adventurous. So, she often went missing and couldn’t be found in the ward. A search party was sent out and she was eventually found halfway round the lake, having afternoon tea with a neighbor. At this time, she couldn’t walk, but crawled everywhere. When Toria was ten years old, she learned to walk and was then able to live at home permanently.
When Toria was 18 years old, Billy Graham came to New Zealand. Toria was invited to his Christian Crusade. That day was a turning point in Her life. She truly believed that God loved her and that He wanted to be personally present in her life. So, she put herself wholly into the hands of God, trusting Him to lead her into the best paths of life that would influence her future for good.
In the early 1970s, Toria went to Bible College as she wanted to prepare to be a missionary in China. The school was on a remote island off the coast of New Zealand, not a place that a person with a disability would find easy to cope with. But God was with Toria, helping her to stay healthy and able to work and study. After graduating, she was sent back to the mainland, to Hamilton City, where she worked for several months in a home for wayward girls. It was at this time that people began to encourage Toria to write her own story. So, she did. During the 1980s, she also wrote and produced plays, concerts and songs. She was very busy being involved in whatever was happening in her world.
in 1981, Toria experienced one of the most important events that would affect her future. While visiting friends, she had a heart attack and died. She says that it was the most amazing experience. She was fully aware of what was happening, but was in no pain. Then as she was moving away from earth, God spoke to her and told her that she must go back. At firat, she didn’t want to, but He repeated that she must go back because there was “something that she must do”. Being a curious child, Toria wanted to know what that might be. Toria says that at this time, her lungs we totally deflated and her heart had stopped. Her friends were praying for her, but no CPR was done as they hadn’t realised that she was already dead. Suddenly, her lungs inflated and her heart was beating normally. Toria was back. She seemed alright, so her friends went back to cooking the dinner. Sometime later, tests were done and medics confirmed that Toria had indeed suffered a heart attack. So, Toria went back to getting on with the business of living. During the 1990s, she set up and ran her own secretarial business. Then she decided to go to university to learn the Spanish language and study World History. Four years later, she was capped. This was amazing, as all through her life people have thought that she had an intellectual disability and couldn’t learn.
in 2014, a family member encouraged Toria to get her first novel, The Chrysalis published. She had been working on it for many years. That gentle push inspired Toria to take on writing full time. Now, she has four books available for purchase. This includes A Million Reasons, Toria’s personal life story.
Toria drives a Ferrari wheelchair and the plate on the back was designed by artist and sign writer,Dale Gilmore. She has known Dale for almost fifty years. So, he was the only choice to do the artwork. Toria is very proud to display Dale’s artwork on her chair.
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