{"id":232,"date":"2011-05-20T06:00:23","date_gmt":"2011-05-20T10:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/goodnews\/?p=232"},"modified":"2011-05-19T16:44:18","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T20:44:18","slug":"from-double-amputee-to-mermaid-famed-movie-director-gives-woman-new-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/goodnews\/2011\/05\/from-double-amputee-to-mermaid-famed-movie-director-gives-woman-new-life.html","title":{"rendered":"From double amputee to mermaid? Famed movie director gives woman new life"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/goodnews\/files\/2011\/05\/majnadya-prosthetic.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-234\" title=\"Nadya Vessey\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/goodnews\/files\/2011\/05\/majnadya-prosthetic-300x197.jpg\" alt=\"Nadya Vessey\" width=\"240\" height=\"158\" \/><\/a>Ask most little girls what they want to be when they grow up and you&#8217;ll hear &#8220;princess&#8221; or &#8220;mermaid&#8221; from many. For Nadya Vessey, her dream was just to walk. As a child, the now 50 year old Nadya, had a rare condition that kept her legs from developing and she was forced to have them amputated. She&#8217;s learned to live life with prosthetics and she gets around quite well. She is often approached by curious people and she&#8217;s happy to explain her condition but on one instance, a curious 4 year old approached her while she was re-attaching her prosthetic legs. He asked her why she didn&#8217;t have any legs. Nadya, being sensitive to the fears of a child, decided to forgo her usual explanation and tell the little boy that she had no legs because she was a mermaid. The young boy&#8217;s face lit up as he scurried off to tell everyone with him that he had just met a real life mermaid.\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/goodnews\/files\/2011\/05\/MakingTail.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignright size-medium wp-image-236\" title=\"Nadya Vessey - Weta Making Tail\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/210\/2011\/05\/MakingTail-300x186.jpg\" alt=\"Nadya Vessey - Weta Making Tail\" width=\"240\" height=\"149\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>That&#8217;s when Nadya got an idea.Why not? Surely someone could fashion her a tail. Enter Academy Award winning director Peter Jackson, more specifically Weta Workshop, his special FX factory.Using the same technology they used for <em>Lord of the Rings<\/em> and <em><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/Entertainment\/Movies\/2008\/09\/12-Spiritual-Lessons-from-Prince-Caspian.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">The Chronicles of Narnia<\/a><\/em>, Weta was able to make Nadya a perfect mermaid tail.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/goodnews\/files\/2011\/05\/NadyaVesseyMermaid.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-238\" title=\"Nadya Vessey Swimming with Mermaid Tail\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/210\/2011\/05\/NadyaVesseyMermaid-300x187.jpg\" alt=\"Nadya Vessey Swimming with Mermaid Tail\" width=\"300\" height=\"187\" \/><\/a>In almost no time she was able wisp around the water. She&#8217;s been so inspired by her newfound freedom in the water that she&#8217;s even considering entering a triathlon. It&#8217;s been a dream of hers for a long time, but until now, there was no way for her to swim. It&#8217;s like the story of <em>The Little Mermaid<\/em> only in order to become a bigger part of our world, Nadya had to become a mermaid.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"background-color: #ffff00;\"><strong>PLEASE hit the &#8220;Like&#8221; button above to share the Good News and add\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/goodnews\/\" target=\"_blank\">http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/goodnews<\/a> to your favorites. New stories every day!<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>You may also enjoy these related Beliefnet features:<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/Inspiration\/Most-Inspiring-2010\/Most-Inspiring-Person-of-2010.aspx\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Meet the most inspiring people of 2010<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/Inspiration\/Galleries\/The-Most-Inspirational-Pictures-of-2010.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">THE most inspirational pictures from the last year<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/Entertainment\/Sports\/Galleries\/5-Inspiring-Athletes-Who-Overcame-Disabilities.aspx\" target=\"_blank\">INCREDIBLE athletes who have overcome disabilities<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><strong>WATCH NADYA&#8217;S STORY ON VIDEO<\/strong><\/p>\n<p><strong><iframe loading=\"lazy\" width=\"480\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/F9jCsbii5rs?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><br \/>\n<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ask most little girls what they want to be when they grow up and you&#8217;ll hear &#8220;princess&#8221; or &#8220;mermaid&#8221; from many. For Nadya Vessey, her dream was just to walk. As a child, the now 50 year old Nadya, had a rare condition that kept her legs from developing and she was forced to have&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":263,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[70],"tags":[95,94,92,93,91],"class_list":["post-232","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-overcoming-disabilities","tag-chronicles-of-narnia","tag-lord-of-the-rings","tag-mermaid","tag-nadya-vessey","tag-peter-jackson"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>From double amputee to mermaid? Famed movie director gives woman new life - Good News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/goodnews\/2011\/05\/from-double-amputee-to-mermaid-famed-movie-director-gives-woman-new-life.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From double amputee to mermaid? Famed movie director gives woman new life - Good News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Ask most little girls what they want to be when they grow up and you&#8217;ll hear &#8220;princess&#8221; or &#8220;mermaid&#8221; from many. For Nadya Vessey, her dream was just to walk. As a child, the now 50 year old Nadya, had a rare condition that kept her legs from developing and she was forced to have&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/goodnews\/2011\/05\/from-double-amputee-to-mermaid-famed-movie-director-gives-woman-new-life.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Good News\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2011-05-20T10:00:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2011-05-19T20:44:18+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/goodnews\/files\/2011\/05\/majnadya-prosthetic-300x197.jpg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"agreyson\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"From double amputee to mermaid? Famed movie director gives woman new life - Good News","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/goodnews\/2011\/05\/from-double-amputee-to-mermaid-famed-movie-director-gives-woman-new-life.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"From double amputee to mermaid? Famed movie director gives woman new life - Good News","og_description":"Ask most little girls what they want to be when they grow up and you&#8217;ll hear &#8220;princess&#8221; or &#8220;mermaid&#8221; from many. For Nadya Vessey, her dream was just to walk. As a child, the now 50 year old Nadya, had a rare condition that kept her legs from developing and she was forced to have&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/goodnews\/2011\/05\/from-double-amputee-to-mermaid-famed-movie-director-gives-woman-new-life.html","og_site_name":"Good News","article_published_time":"2011-05-20T10:00:23+00:00","article_modified_time":"2011-05-19T20:44:18+00:00","og_image":[{"url":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/goodnews\/files\/2011\/05\/majnadya-prosthetic-300x197.jpg"}],"author":"agreyson","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/goodnews\/2011\/05\/from-double-amputee-to-mermaid-famed-movie-director-gives-woman-new-life.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/goodnews\/2011\/05\/from-double-amputee-to-mermaid-famed-movie-director-gives-woman-new-life.html","name":"From double amputee to mermaid? 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