Sadiyyah Owens of Odenton struggled to hold back tears as she took the stage at Arundel High School dressed in a white cap and gown and carrying a single, long-stemmed rose with a spray of white baby's breath.

"Mom, you mean so much to me, and to all of us," she said to the woman in the front row. "My biggest fear was that she wouldn't be able to come and see me graduate."

The senior celebrated her high school graduation with a full ceremony yesterday morning, just more than a week since the doctors said the pancreatic cancer her mother had fought for the past year had spread - and gave her just two...