"When am I going home?" Dawn asked.

I wanted badly to give her an encouraging answer. I was running out of ways to comfort her. Before the nurse gave Dawn a shot to put her to sleep, I told her, "The test the doctors do today will help them decide what's wrong with you."

"Yes, but I don't want them to hurt me anymore."

I took her in my arms and said, "Oh, Dawn, you've been so brave. I pray this is the last test you have to go through."

But it wasn't the last test. In an instant, the lives of Dawn Marie Smith and her family were torn apart when doctors delivered the dreaded diagnosis - brain cancer. If radiation was effective, they said, Dawn might live three to five years. If the treatment didn't work, she would die in six months.

While the family struggled to comprehend Dawn's diagnosis, they realized it was only the first step of an arduous journey. There seemed to be no end to the doctor visit and hospital stays. In The Shining Eyes of Dawn, Marilyn Smith recounts Dawn's courageous battle with cancer, even as she dealt with physical and mental afflictions.

MARILYN SMITH-HAWKINS lives in Florida. She desires her family's experience with cancer to minister to others and plans to donate proceeds from her book to cancer charities for children.