Mom Pens Children’s Book Inspired by Son While Fighting Cancer

Hang out with the Dixon family for a little while and you’ll begin to hear a familiar sound. The sound of laughter and lots of it – especially coming from the mom. Not what you would expect from a wife and mother of three kids who has spent years in the hospital coming close to death several times.

“I lost my hair in the first week, I was throwing up constantly,” said Brittany Dixon to KSL’s Dan Rascon when talking about her fight with cancer.

It started with a mole on her face that had been there her entire life. It then got darker and darker and in October of 2012 she was diagnosed with Stage 3 Melanoma.

“I can just remember wanting to pick up my baby and run out of the room. Because I thought if I just get up and leave it’s not really happening,” said the 33-year-old mother.

After years of treatment, Brittany thought she had it beat, but in December of 2017 she was told the cancer had spread and she was now at Stage 4.

At that time her then 4-year-old son Karston came into the hospital room.

“I was hooked up to tubes and there was all these beeping sounds with the machines and he comes in and I was like Karston come here and he climbed up on my lap and he was stiff as a board terrified and it broke my heart as a mom,” said Brittany.

That’s when Brittany kissed him several times on the forehead – what Karston always called “too many kisses”

“It was just this little tiny thing in our relationship that made him realize that I was still mom,” she said.

Suddenly Brittany got an idea while still in her hospital bed — write a book. The story of a boy trying to understand what his sick mom was going through. The title – “Too Many Kisses.”

She immediately texted her sister-in-law Vanessa Dixon, an artist, to illustrate it. Vanessa went to work, very excited about the opportunity to help.

“I wanted her to see her book in print. I wanted her to be remembered for her writing. I was touched that she asked me,” said Vanessa with emotion.

Karston is now 7 and proud to have a book about him and his mom.

“I love her so much — she’s the love of my life,” said Karston.

With the book now hot-off-the-press, Brittany got a chance to do a reading at the Huntsman Cancer Institute.

“This is my mom she is my favorite person…” she read. “Today my mom is sick. She is too sick to play…. Mom will you give me too many kisses? She smiles and kissed me one million times. I don’t feel scared anymore.”

Brittany’s father couldn’t be more proud of what his daughter has been able to accomplish.

“Very proud of her a lot of strength,” said an emotional Mark Abaney after the reading. “She’s just really become a very strong wise woman. She told me ‘you don’t know what you don’t know so don’t worry about what you don’t know today.’”

Erin Ebert is a very close friend who helped publish the book for Brittany. She said the book brought tears to her eyes when Brittany first read it to her.

“She’s like a living flower arrangement in my opinion. She’s bursting with color and joy and happiness. And she puts a smile on everyone’s face when they see her,” said Erin.

Brittany is not cancer-free. In fact, the cancer has spread throughout her entire body, but she says a new treatment has shown some promise.

She admits she’s terrified about the future, but still chooses to smile and laugh daily.

“I will always have a smile on my face,” she said… smiling, of course.

For a link to her book and how to purchase it you can go online to www.toomanykissesbook.com.