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NORTON - Last August the lives of Danielle Cann, 16, and her 13-year-old sister, Brittany, hung in the balance.

Shortly after the girls and their mother, Elizabeth, returned to their home from a Tweeter Center concert, Elizabeth's former boyfriend, Robert McDermott, entered their home near Norton Reservoir and shot and critically wounded the three women and killed their dog. Elizabeth, 44, died.

"The first thing I remember is waking up to the ambulance and the EMTs," said Brittany, who now lives with Danielle, her father, Wayne, her stepmom, Melissa, and her two half brothers and stepsister in Easton.

Brittany, Danielle and Elizabeth lay undiscovered in their home for 30 hours before her father and stepmother entered the house to find the carnage.

Older sister Amanda, 17, who was in Florida at the time and missed the shootings, no doubt saved her sisters' lives by alerting her father when Elizabeth failed to return her repeated phone calls. Both wounded girls have since gone through multiple surgeries, with Danielle facing her eighth operation in March. Yet despite suffering serious head wounds, the teenagers are doing their best to return to normalcy. Brittany is already back at school and Danielle expects to return to her studies next year.

The girls are especially excited to attend the first of three fundraising concerts on their behalf Sunday arranged by family friend Michelle Bates with help from talent promoter Kerrie Angell.

The concert at Fusion Five on Route 1 in Foxboro features a dozen of the area's most popular rock bands and kicks off at noon for all ages and 7 p.m. for 21-and-over. Admission is $15 for under-21s and $20 for adults.

Music has always been important to the Cann girls, as well as their late mother, whom Brittany says enjoyed concerts and "dancing her butt off." The family's Norton home was close enough to the 19,000-seat Tweeter Center for The Performing Arts for the girls to hear the concerts while sitting on their porch or while paddling a canoe out on the reservoir.

Brittany, who started taking trombone lessons in fifth grade, recently resumed studying guitar.

On the night of the shootings, Elizabeth and her girls had just returned from a concert by Rascal Flatts at the Tweeter Center when McDermott, who had been thrown out of the home earlier, entered their house.

After shooting the family dog, he shot Brittany, Elizabeth and Danielle each in the head. Through it all, he laughed.

The mentally unstable McDermott later shot himself on the tracks of a commuter rail line in Walpole, where his body was struck by a train.

Many victims of trauma have trouble remembering details of violent incidents because of their injuries, or find that their minds have defensively edited out the worst parts.

The Cann girls, however, are able to recall the details of that night vividly - the shock, the gunshots, the encounter with what seemed like certain death. The girls were sleeping in their mother's upstairs bedroom when McDermott entered the home and shot the family dog, Freedom.

"I woke up and I heard the shot and didn't know if it was outside," said Brittany, who rushed out of the room on her way downstairs. "Right out of the room he was there, and he put the gun against my head behind my ear and shot me."

Danielle remembers seeing her sister leave the room and hearing her sister shot. Then McDermott turned the gun on Elizabeth and Danielle.

"My mother gave me a healing stone she had and told me she loved me," Danielle said. "Then he shot her."

Then came the final, chilling words Danielle or anyone else would hear from Robert McDermott.

"Lights out, Danielle," the 16-year-old remembers him saying.

Then, he shot her in the head. The girls were rushed to the hospital after being found by their father and stepmother.

Brittany got out of the hospital in October. Danielle has been in and out of the hospital ever since the shooting, but is now living at home more or less permanently.

Brittany is blind in the left eye, a result of damage from McDermott's bullet. Danielle's forehead was temporarily removed by doctors as a safeguard against infection. She wears a helmet to shield her head.

There is also emotional damage.

"It's hard, because I was really close to my mother," Danielle said. Frequently, tears accompany the memories.

Amanda, up from Florida to visit with her sisters and family, still finds it hard to discuss what has happened. In an interview at the Bates's house, she mostly sat quietly as her younger siblings did the talking.

Gradually, the girls and their family members are trying to shift the focus to getting on with their lives and allowing the girls to enjoy their teenage years.

"I feel like I'm getting more back to normal now, because I'm off my medicine and I'm back at school," said Brittany, a sunny, optimistic child who is full of smiles and humor.

She jokes that she knows she's come of age because she's been asked out a couple of times since she returned to class. She admits to being a bit young for dating, but not for boys.

Brittany can't resist the temptation to clown and entertain. A veteran of school plays, she links arms with visitor Angell, and in an instant the two are locked in a dance step reminiscent of Ray Bolger and Judy Garland in "The Wizard of Oz."

Later, seated next to Amanda, she hugs her big sister and kisses her on the head.

"This girl. This is the sweetest kid, right here," said Brittany. "My sister."

When Amanda returns a look of shy, semi-embarrassment, Brittany is unsatisfied. So she starts poking her big sis playfully. It tickles, and finally raises a beautiful smile from the older girl.

"See?"