She has battled epilepsy for most of her life but remains positive and creative

Singing in a church choir in Sunrise on a Sunday in June 2024, Jessica Pascal Novoa realized she was shaking and sat down for a moment. Her mother, Rita Acosta, immediately raced to her side from the back of the choir, where she also sang.

“Is everything OK?” the two recalled the priest asking as the choir kept singing.

Minutes later, Novoa whispered, “Mom, I’m OK.” Acosta told the priest, “Everything is OK.” Novoa stood back up and continued singing despite having just experienced a seizure.

That episode was one of many in her life in which Novoa persevered through serious challenges and showed courage, her mom said.

Novoa was diagnosed with epilepsy at birth, and it affected her neurological development as well. Now at 42, she has never had a full-time job and never lived independently. She goes to a school for adults with disabilities. At home though, she has developed her skills as a painter and learned to play the guitar.

Born in New York, her health challenges started when she was 2 years old and started having seizures.

Doctors put her on multiple medications and said the seizures would subside. The prescribed drugs not only failed to help but had unpleasant side effects, said Acosta.

Novoa then moved to Florida with her parents. Her father transferred jobs.

As Novoa grew, her neurological development lagged. When she was 7 years old and the family was trying to find an elementary school that was a good fit for her, they were met with discouragement. The psychologist at one Broward County public school told her mother, “Your daughter won’t be able to learn anything” at that school.

Two years later, she won third prize for a painting at an art fair. She was already showing great interest in art — and promise as well. Several psychiatrists she was seeing advised her to spend more time drawing and painting.

Her mom made sure her daughter got supplies and drove her from one art class to another. “As a mom, I had to encourage her,” said Acosta.

Novoa’s pursuit of creating art was an early foreshadowing of their interwoven lives and how they inspire each other.

“She’s my hero,” Acosta said of her daughter. “My mom is the best,” replied Novoa.

Deep into adulthood, Novoa still lives with her mother in a modest two-bedroom apartment where she’s been since her early 20s. Simple things most adults take for granted aren’t possible.

She can’t get dressed by herself. Her mother has hired a home aide to help. Novoa has never been to the beach. The heat and sunlight aggravate her condition. She can’t go to the grocery store alone.

But the two often encourage each other.

“I want her to learn how to buy things,” Acosta said.

Five years ago, at the age of 37, Novoa had brain surgery, hoping it would improve her condition. Her seizures have since reduced in duration and frequency, her mother said.

Yet, that surgery created new challenges. Afterwards, she wasn’t able to speak or walk, or remember anything. It took nearly three months for her to regain those abilities.

“It was a very rough road” for her, said Jeannie DeMarzo, president of the Danielle DeMarzo Foundation, who knows Novoa and her mother and nominated them for the Miami Herald’s Wish Book.

Novoa said she still has seizures regularly, once or twice a month. “I don’t know when it’s coming. It could happen anywhere.”

Finding a solution: electric tricycle

That makes exercise difficult. The solution, Acosta thought, could be an electric tricycle that her daughter could ride as Acosta rode her own bicycle.

“I said Jessica, you have to exercise,” she recalled. “So why don’t we go to the park?” Her daughter can’t ride a regular bicycle, but an electric tricycle gives her support. “I thought, well, she won’t be alone, I’ll have my bike and go with her.” Jessica reluctantly agreed.

The mother and daughter are asking Wish Book for a foldable electric tricycle for adults with disabilities.

The tricycle will be “good for her physically and mentally,” said DeMarzo. Moreover, “it’s a way for them to do things together.” That’s fitting as they seem to be each other’s biggest supporters.

At their apartment in Sunrise on a Saturday afternoon in December, with her guitar and music book, Novoa strummed through “Every Breath You Take,” the classic hit song by The Police. Her mother looked on with pride.

Getting brain surgery had slowed her momentum in music and most pursuits as she was forced to effectively start over as an adult.

After finishing, Acosta said, “It’s only been one year [since she returned to playing.] She has to go a little faster.” Mom was also eager to point out that “she can also play without notes.”

When Novoa showed interest in music as a kid, her mother tried to find classes. She took her to three different teachers. Each said no. “They made excuses,” said Acosta.

The mother was crushed. She also wanted to spare her daughter’s feelings.

“Why don’t you do keyboard?” she recalled asking Jessica. “No Mommy, I want the guitar,” the mother recounted.

They finally found a teacher, a musician from Venezuela, and Jessica now has classes once a week.

“She has musical ability,” her mom said.

That hasn’t always been an enjoyable experience.

Offended by her treatment, she left the church

Several months after Novoa sang through a seizure at the Sunrise church, officials there discouraged her from returning. At one point, a director asked her to audition but afterwards coldly said “Email me in 3 weeks. We’ll see if you come back,” the mother recalled. It was obvious they were getting blown off, Acosta said.

Jessica started getting upset, saying “I want to be in the choir,” her mom recounted, adding “I tried to calm her down.

Jessica now says, “I felt hurt” by the whole episode. “I still like to sing, and I’d like another chance.”

A consequence of that ill-treatment by that choir director was Novoa started getting upset at church — any church.

“Now she says, ‘Mommy, I don’t want to go to any church,’” said Acosta.

“But I have to go to church,” said the mother, who wants the spiritual nourishment a church provides her. She had been attending that Sunrise church for over 30 years, she said.

It’s another reminder of how their lives interconnect.

Amid the struggles, in several ways, Novoa has a life to which many can relate.

When asked what’s the toughest day she’s ever faced given all of her life battles, she replied, “when my mom and dad got divorced. … It was really hard.” She was 16 years old at the time.

On a typical day, Novoa wakes up at 3 a.m. She goes back to sleep on the living room sofa. At 6:20 a.m., she gets up again and opens the curtains. She sets a place mat on the dining table and puts the cereal out, then waits for her mom to wake up before she eats. Novoa also makes sure her grandmother, who lives with them, eats.

Monday through Thursday, Broward County transportation picks her up and takes her to a school for adults with disabilities. When she arrives, she seeks out her boyfriend.

Speaking with a reporter, Novoa took several seconds to remember his name. She then said “Sorry, my bad,” before producing it. “We’ve been together for 6 to 8 months.”

“I’m proud of my excellent boyfriend,” Novoa said. “I hope we will be together as one.”

“She’s a positive person,” said DeMarzo, “always smiling.”

Every afternoon, she comes home and plays her guitar. “My mom wants me to play every day,” she says.

On Mondays, she goes bowling with her boyfriend. On Friday, she attends art class.

She has shown promise as an artist. At home, she has supplies and numerous paintings in her room and finds great joy in it. She would like to find an art gallery in Miami interested in displaying some of her work. She already sold one piece for $400.

Acosta says her daughter’s art exemplifies the potential of people with medical challenges and wishes society would focus more on their abilities and less on their disabilities.

“We are all children of God,” says the mother. “If you have a brain, you have talent.”

HOW TO HELP

To help this Wish Book nominee and more than 150 others who are in need this year:

• To donate, use the coupon found in the newspaper or pay securely online through www.MiamiHerald.com/wishbook
• For more information, call 305-376-2906 or email Wishbook@MiamiHerald.com 
• The most requested items are often laptops and tablets for school, furniture, and accessible vans 
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