On Memorial Day weekend of 2006, my beautiful daughter Hannah started having trouble seeing out of her left eye and had a slight head tilt. I called the doctor and was told to take her to the emergency room because they thought she was showing signs of a head trauma. Upon our arrival at the emergency room Hannah’s symptoms magically went away. We were told that she was fine and to take her home after being examined by doctors. Then later that night, at a family cookout Hannah collapsed to the ground...unable to stand up on her own. We then rushed her back to the ER and had a CAT scan done, where nothing was abnormal. Make a long story short; upon a Neurologist request Hannah had an MRI on 6/7/2006. That day was one of the worst days of my life. I was told that my daughter had a brainstem tumor called Diffuse Intrinsic Pontine Glioma and only had 10 to 12 months to live. We were also told to expect that my daughter would lose all abilities as her tumor grows, because our brainstem controls our whole body.

Hannah went through 5 different types of chemo, 32 day radiation treatments, 1 Gamma Knife surgery, and 1 platelet transfusion. The whole time my daughter was strong, brave, and never lost any of her abilities until 2 weeks prior to her passing. On 10/4/2007, 16 months after her diagnoses, my sweet little daughter took her last breath in her Mommy and Daddy’s arms. Hannah is my hero in every since of the word. I miss her everyday and love her so much. I was blessed with the gift of this child and a better person for her.