By Peter St. Onge
pstonge@charlotteobserver.com

The graduates march in shortly after 8:30. Brittany Lockhart is first, followed by her brother, Brandon, each wearing the royal blue cap and gown of North Mecklenburg High School. Their mother, Tonya, sits in the front corner of the room, in a sleeveless black-patterned dress. A blanket is pulled above the arms of her wheelchair.

Before them are two dozen family members and friends, here to celebrate a milestone, two months early. Brittany and Brandon Lockhart will receive their diplomas in June, but their mother has cervical cancer. This ceremony, on a Monday morning in a Presbyterian Hospital chapel, is likely her best chance to see them graduate.

The room is prepared with balloons and blue streamers. A nurse plays "Pomp & Circumstance" on her phone as the graduates walk in. "It is a privilege and an honor to be here," says Joey Burch, the North Meck principal, and he motions to Brandon first, handing him the small binder that will soon hold a diploma.

"I'm proud of you," Burch says, and they smile for the raised cameras. Tonya closes her eyes.

Before the ceremony, she remembered their first day of school, how Brandon and Brittany cried that morning before heading to kindergarten at Beverly Woods Elementary. Off they went, of course, because their mother stressed education from the start, told them she wanted them to be successful, that they should be leaders, not followers.

Her children - Brittany, Brandon and two brothers, Brian and Melvin - have done very well. They've stayed out of trouble and in the classroom - and like their mother, they have not come up short on personality. "Oh Lord," Tonya said. "The attitude."

She raised them as a single mother, working as a nurse's aide. She tried to make it to every football game, plus the other activities. "Sometimes I thought, 'This is too much. I can't do it,'" she remembered. But she did do it, and the children helped her, and their household was navigating life well until last April, when Tonya was diagnosed with cervical cancer.

The past year has been filled with chemotherapy and other treatments, until last week, when Tonya had to be admitted to Presbyterian with failing health. Among the conversations with doctors was one about her children graduating soon. A doctor contacted North Meck. He talked to the children. They decided to have the ceremony quickly, on Monday, which also was their mother's 43rd birthday.

"She has done the best that she could raising us," said Brandon. "She's an all-around good person. She'll do anything for everybody."

In the corner, Tonya smiles as the principal steps toward Brittany, diploma cover in hand. "Come over here, girl," Burch says, and the room laughs. Tonya shakes her head, slowly and proudly. Brittany, she said earlier, is the vivacious one, and Brandon the teddy bear, quiet and shy.

Brittany will be attending the Art Institute of Charlotte to major in fashion marketing and management.

Brandon likes music, but he might pursue college culinary courses.

Said their mother, about Brandon and everything else: "I'll leave it in God's hands."

So in the chapel, she watches as the principal says, "By the power vested in me..."

She smiles as the gathering applauds and the cameras are raised again - first for the children together, then with the principal, then the graduates and a proud mother.

"A weight off my shoulders," Tonya Lockhart had said earlier, and now she reaches up for theirs, first Brittany's and then Brandon's, and she pulls them closer.

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