The Leaf-Chronicle
When Dawn Stanfill found a lump in her breast that wasn't normal, she didn't immediately
spring into action.
"It was right before Christmas in 2005," said her sister, Pam McCaslin. "She didn't
want to ruin everybody's Christmas, so she waited until January."
A few weeks may not have made any difference,
but by the time Dawn's cancer was diagnosed, she was in for a battle.
"Within a week or two, they found it had
spread to her liver," Pam said.
Even with that sobering news, Dawn's first thought wasn't her own mortality. It
was worry about how her parents, Robert and Frances Clark, would react to the news.
"When she found out for sure,
she hated to have to tell our parents," Pam said.
Dawn was also concerned for her husband of 29 years, Wayne "Duck"
Stanfill, her brothers, Bobby and Ross Clark, her daughters, Brittnye Stanfill and Alicia Dye, and so many others.
"Dawn
had the most unselfish heart." Pam said. "Her husband and girls were always first priority in her life. As her illness
progressed and each time the doctors came back with bad news, her concern was for our parents."
Dawn's niece, Bethany
McCaslin, said that's just the way "Aunt Dawn" was.
"She was the calm of the family," Bethany said.
"They would give her so much to worry about, and she was just fine about it."
Brittnye, 25, said she often
phoned from Jacksonville, Fla., to talk to her mom while she was getting cancer treatments.
"I would call her with
all my drama about shoes and things, and she never complained," Brittnye said. "Never."
Tears still threaten
when Pam talks about her sister, two years older than her and her best friend for her whole life. They graduated from Clarksville
High School two years apart and worked together at Acme Boot. Dawn chauffeured Pam everywhere until Pam finally had to break
down and get her own driver's license when Dawn got married.
Later, Dawn became a teacher, teaching in Montgomery County
for more than 20 years, most recently at Richview Middle School.
"As a teacher, she was most upset when she was
told she would have to stop teaching to go through a harsh round of cancer treatments," Brittnye said. "She was
more worried about her students having to adjust to a substitute than she was about having to start chemotherapy."
Dawn's
treatments were many and varied, including a double mastectomy, dietary changes, healing teas and experimental treatments
offered through clinical trials at Vanderbilt. Dawn met each new challenge with optimism and grace, her faith in God her constant
comfort.
"Honestly, until the last week, she really thought she was going to be well," Pam said. "She
was totally shocked. She never thought it would get her."
Dawn taught Sunday School and Vacation Bible School at
First Baptist Church, and sang in the church choir. She taped Bible verses inside her kitchen cabinets, so each time she reached
in for a plate, she got a side of inspiration. Although Dawn prayed hoping to be healed in this life, Pam said she comforts
herself with the thought that her sister got "perfect healing" in the next life.
Content that Dawn is happy
and healed in heaven, her family and friends are not, however, content to let it go at that. Early this year, Brittnye formed
the nonprofit Dawn Stanfill Foundation, whose mission is "to provide financial support to local pediatric cancer patients
and their families as well as local pediatric oncology research."
The foundation's first event, an evening of food,
wine and dancing called Dancing 'til Dawn, is 8 p.m. Aug. 1 in F&M Bank's Franklin Room. Tickets cost $50 each, and money
raised will be used to help local children who have cancer, a nod to Dawn's abiding love of children.
"She never
got to return to teaching before passing away," Brittnye said. "However our goal as a foundation is to keep her
love for children alive. Who better to help than children battling cancer, as she did?"
Stacy Leiser is a features
writer for The Leaf-Chronicle. She can be reached at 245-0720 or by e-mail at stacyleiser@theleafchronicle.com.
Reproduced with permission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction or distribution is prohibited
without permission.
