The deck was not stacked in favor of Mya Marie Zimmer, but you would not have known it if you ever saw her.

The Lutcher native was diagnosed with cystic fibrosis at 3 months old. The life-threatening disorder damages the lungs and digestive system, and according to family, Mya struggled mightily with her lungs.

It surely would have been enough to slow many young people. That was not the case with Mya, who played numerous sports as a youth and participated in cheerleading and dance through high school.

She excelled in the classroom, earning an academic scholarship to Tulane University.

She set her sights on becoming a doctor to help others diagnosed with cystic fibrosis.

“Mya was very self-determined,” mother Sally LeBlanc Zimmer told me this week. “She always had a wish and a dream and she always made it come true. She would tell me every night, “Mom, God is good” and she would find something good to tell me. She really was very faithful.”

That inner strength was evident in February of 2009 when she persevered through the death of her loving father, Dale “Zip” Zimmer and again in June of 2013, when Mya recognized things were progressing negatively with her illness. According to Sally, Mya told her, “it’s starting to happen Mom, I’m dying.”

Instead of accepting the feeling as fact, Mya focused on a lung transplant.

She worked day and night to make her body healthy enough for the operation.

Thankfully, during the Mardi Gras holidays of 2014, a matching set was found, and Mya completed a successful surgery.

Sally said her daughter progressed well in the following days before a stretch of vomiting set in a week later.

“She vomited for a whole year,” Sally said. “(The doctors) could not get her rejection medicines and her body to cooperate on what needed to be done. Of course, all this time she is losing weight and we are going in and out of the hospital.”

Mya eventually set her sights on a second transplant, but the toll taken on the body left her with near impossible odds at long-term success — her doctor sending her home on April 28 of this year, saying there was nothing else that could be done.

Mya didn’t buy it.

As her mother remembers, she “ate and ate” to boost her weight and never once vomited following her discharge.

By Sunday night, July 19, Mya reached her goal weight to qualify for a second transplant.

The next day she woke up unresponsive and went to the hospital. She died the following day at 24 years old, leaving a hole in her family and community that is impossible to fill.

Her story spread. Those who knew her grieved with those who barely knew her and some who didn’t know her at all.

Mya, known as “Toot” to her brother and father, wasn’t the type of person defined by her illness. Her life and its richness impacted many.

She excelled as a dancer, performing in Paris, Rome and all over the United States. She danced with Jamie’s Dance Dimensions, Yvonne’s Direction in Dance and the Honey Bees NBA dance team. She also worked as an instructor for American All Stars.

“She told me she was at peace when she danced and nothing bothered her,” Sally said of her daughter.

Mya also entered two pageants, winning both — the Festival of the Bonfires and the Festival of Charities.

“She really wanted to represent St. James Parish, because she felt she was representing it with dignity and knowledge,” Sally said.

Monica Delcambre was a Bonfire judge and shared on L’OBSERVATEUR’s Facebook page Mya never mentioned her illness but her passion for life was amazing.

“I loved her that day and every day since learning of her sickness!” Delcambre said. “Such a brave young woman with so much zest for life.”

There is little doubt Mya Marie Zimmer was taken from her community and those who loved her most too soon. Hopefully, her example and those she impacted in such a positive way keep her present with us despite her all-too-early passing.

Stephen Hemelt is publisher and editor of L’OBSERVATEUR. He can be reached at 985-652-9545 or stephen.hemelt@lobservateur.com.