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‘Live for every moment’

by Naomi Driessnack
Dawna puts up her hair at the end-of-the-schoolday rush. her day doesn't end once the middle school empties. Her afternoons are filled with activities and family time, including visits to her mother, who recently suffered a heart attack followed by a stroke.

Reminders both tangible and intangible surround Dawna Gilliam, marking the most frightening experience in her life.

Dawna, 46, was diagnosed with breast cancer June 20, 2012, and 34 days later, she had a double mastectomy. The skin on her chest bears deep scars, and bracelets adorned with positive words push her forward. She cherishes everyday moments, knowing that diagnosis could have stolen them away.

“I like my life to be happy and simple,” Dawna says. “In a perfect world, everyone would be happy and well. Everything would be pink. Everything would taste sweet and warm.”

Dawna says she’s a mom first and foremost. She’s also Farristown Middle School’s secretary.

She wakes up to a cup of coffee from her husband, David, and the sounds of her two children, Benjamin, 16, and Rebekah, 14, preparing for their day. While dressing, she pulls up her sleeves, slides on her pink breast cancer awareness bracelet, and thanks God for her health and her family.

Activities – including soccer practice, cross-country meets, church and banquets – complicate the Gilliams’ lives. But when mornings become hectic and days are rushed, car rides turn into an open conversation about thankfulness.

“I consider myself a control freak,” Dawna says. “So when you come to a point in your life when you have no control, regardless of the outcome, you have to give everything to God and say, ‘I’m yours.’

“We have to live for every moment.”

Dawna shares a light moment at Bible study with a group from Fairview Baptist Church. "When you can truly give things to God, he can do so much better than you ever could," Dawna says. "I see my blessings so much clearer – even the small areas."
David wakes Dawna with a kiss and a cup of coffee before their children awake. They married in 1992. They were born and raised in Berea and have known each other all their lives. "David isn't the romantic type, so I don't get flowers, but I get food," Dawna says. "He cooks for me and wakes me up each morning with coffee in bed."
Dawna and her mother, Velma Croucher, reminisce about Dawna's organization and cleanliness as a child. "I would wake up in the morning and the whole living room would be reorganized," Velma says. Dawna vists her mother and father to help clean and do their laundry.
Dawna Gilliam shares a tender moment with her daughter, Rebekah. "Rebekah doesn't have my personality," Dawna says. "She is more like my sister. She wants to have a good time."
Dawna claps for her daughter at the middle school soccer banquet at Galaxy Bowling & Family Entertainment Center in Richmond. Because Rebekah is in eighth grade, this season is her last with the team. Dawna makes her children participate in a sport each season. "David and I are very strict parents. I filter everything that goes in," Dawna says. "They know all their choices will have consequences. I have taught them to stand up for what is right, even if it's alone."
Before being diagnosed with breast cancer, Dawna had a hysterectomy. She was placed on hormone therapy because her body no longer produced them. Since her double mastectomy, she can't take any form of hormone therapy or replacement.
Signed donation posters for Baptist Health's Sixth Annual Paint the Town Pink campaign to increase breast cancer awareness hang in the window of Farristown Middle School's front office. Dawna, who is responsible for several of the donations, has been cancer-free for more than two years.
Benjamin (from left), David and Dawna listen to Rebekah while dining out. David is the assistant superintendent of the school system. "Although we are very much public people, with David being the assistant superintendent, we are very private in our home life," Dawna says. "We don't make big productions about everything."
Dawna unpacks the car with her children, Rebekah and Benjamin, after school at their home in Paint Lick. "Being a mother is the most rewarding job," Dawna says. "It's the hardest job, but it's the best job."