May 12, 2025 – High School yearbooks are full of happy memories. After four years on the yearbook staff, Tascosa senior Ragan Dunn knows that better than anyone.
For Ragan, her senior yearbook captures an extra-special happy memory.
“This year, I get to be in the yearbook with my mom. I’m super excited about that,” says Ragan, who took a picture with her mom for the yearbook section dedicated to Tascosa legacies, featuring alumni and their senior students.
A special photo and a book filled with happy memories mean even more after the roller coaster ride life has taken Ragan on in high school.
Sophomore year, a sudden attack of a rare disease left Ragan temporarily paralyzed from the waist down. “Basically, my parents gave me a very rare gene that came in contact with the common cold and shut my body down.”
Ragan, it turns out, was one in a million.
“They sent my MRIs all around the world because I’m the oldest kid known to get this.”
Doctors told Ragan’s parents there is no cure and that Ragan likely would need a wheelchair for the rest of her life. But Ragan is one in a million.
“I was in the infectious disease unit for a week, and then I could move my legs a little bit. And then I could pick up my legs. Then I could stand, and they were like, we don’t know how this is happening,” recalls Ragan.
Three weeks after arriving at Cook Children’s Hospital by air, Ragan walked out of the hospital. She was back at school the following week.
“I had God with me. I had my mom. She never left. And my dad, he came a lot,” Ragan’s voice trails off.
Just three months after losing her ability to walk and then fighting to regain it, Ragan found herself facing another loss… This one was even more devastating. Ragan’s dad suddenly passed away.
“I love talking about him. He was a pretty cool dude. He was really funny and sweet. He could talk to a brick wall and it would talk back,” she says, smiling. “He was just always around. I got really lucky with that.”
When she returned to school, Ragan says the support of her teachers and counselor helped her catch up. Her studies were a much-needed distraction in the ebb and flow of life. She will graduate next week with National Honor Society and Superintendent’s Scholar accolades.
When she accepts her diploma, Ragan will have a tiny picture of her dad attached to her tassel. The big moments in life, like graduation, hit a little differently now.
“I know he’ll be there,” nods Ragan, who will cross the stage wiser than most her age. “Don’t take things for granted. There’s always light at the end of the tunnel.”
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