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The radiation treatment seemed to help at first. Although her hair fell out, she gained weight and her eye, which had once drooped shut, was open and alert.

Gifts for Marguerita began to arrive as people learned of her plight. Dolls were hung over her bed, but her mother took them down when Marguerita lapsed into a coma.

Classmates and relatives helped Marguerita celebrate her ninth birthday, her last.

The community tried to help the family alleviate the mounting hospital bills.

Two years later, the bedridden Marguerita only vaguely resembles the smiling little girl in the photograph. Her hospital bed was moved into the living room of the Sargent's small home where the family's activities would center around her for the…

Jim Sargent sits with his stepdaughter in their front yard after she returned home from the hospital. She would have thirteen cobalt treatments altogether, and twice as much chemotherapy, until it, too, became futile.

Marguerita rests as her mother continues to hold her hand.

Awaiting radiation treatment, Marguerita spends a solitary moment in the hospital corridor.

A radiation machine hovers ominously over Marguerita. The procedure would become routine, but frightening nevertheless.