Sandra Keeney can't stop talking about her daughter Michele's determination and spirit.
Reliant on crutches since the discovery of a spinal tumor at 17 months, Michele still learned to ride a bicycle, drive a car and roller skate.
"She would put on the roller skates and pull herself along with her crutches," Mrs. Keeney recalled with a smile. "She always wanted to be like everybody else. There was no stopping her in anything she wanted to do."
Michele, 16, died of cancer Oct. 2 in her family's Ellicott City home. She was a junior at Howard High School.
She left behind not just memories but also a mother who now wants to help other parents in the midst of similar situations.
"There are so many things available to families that you don't really know about or think about using," Mrs. Keeney said.
"When you find out your child has cancer or some other illness, you're in such a state of shock that you don't really know what's going on around you. Until you talk to other parents and get a chance to understand what's available, you just don't think about it."
Opening the family's Disney World photo album, Mrs. Keeney flipped through the pictures and remembered the fun Michele had at the Orlando, Fla., theme park.
"It was the greatest fantasy that any kid could experience," Mrs. Keeney said. "It was wonderful not just for Michele, but for all of us to have the time together."
It was only through the generosity of the national Make-A-Wish Foundation and the state Grant-A-Wish Foundation that the entire family -- Michele, her mother, her father, David, and her two sisters, Stefanie, 20, and Renee, 12 -- was able to travel to Disney World not once, but twice, during Michele's last, four-year battle with cancer.
Doctors had hoped that Michele was forever cured of cancer when a spinal tumor was removed at age 2. She was weakened but, after years of therapy, managed to walk with the use of crutches.
However, the radiation treatment used to kill the spinal tumor apparently caused a different type of cancer, discovered in 1990 in the form of a cantaloupe-sized tumor attached to her diaphragm.
Michele underwent several surgeries and chemotherapy treatments, but the cancer kept returning until nothing more could be done.
"She was so strong. She wanted to keep fighting it," her sister Stefanie said.
Stefanie remembered Michele obtaining a learner's permit to drive and then speeding down Route 175, straining with her 3-foot-6-inch body to peer over the steering wheel. "It was so funny, and I was so impressed with her. It was probably the neatest experience of my life."
The Keeney family grieves for Michele, and Mrs. Keeney said she eventually will seek some bereavement counseling.
But she also would like to offer her help to other parents with children who are dying or have recently died, even though she knows that other therapy groups already exist in the county.
"We were always a family of five, and now we're a family of four. It's strange," said Mrs. Keeney. "It's been a difficult adjustment. But maybe I can offer a little bit of help to others, to help them talk about what it feels like."