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A year ago, teenage sisters Brittany and Danielle Cann of Norton hung in the margin between life and death - shot in the head by Robert McDermott, who at the same time murdered their mother Elizabeth in a paroxysm of violence that prompted shock and revulsion throughout the Attleboro area.

McDermott, 39, their mother's former boyfriend, later took his own life and the two sisters spent months in the hospital and at home recovering from their wounds.

But even faced with stark reminders of that August night, family and community members are amazed at how well the two girls and their older sister Amanda have progressed.

"It's like I've said ever since it happened," Wayne Cann, the girls' father and Elizabeth's former husband, said during an interview with the family in their hometown of Easton. "The fact that we're all here together is a miracle."

Cann and his wife, Melissa, the girls and the couple's three younger children Erica, Curtis and Adam met with a Sun Chronicle reporter and photographer Thursday to discuss their lives since the tragedy and to talk about their hopes and plans for the future. Prior to the shootings, the three older Cann girls had lived with their mother, Elizabeth, 44, in the Grove section of Norton. Afterward, they moved in with their father and stepmother, Melissa, and their three children.

At first, the merged family's existence was a blur of trips to distant hospitals while struggling to care for children and household. But that's changed gradually as first Brittany and then Danielle returned home and began to settle into a life that included school, church and summer camp and activities like watching Adam, 6, and Curtis, 8, at junior football practice.

"It's been a year of scrambling," Wayne Cann said.

His wife, Melissa, said life has become more normal in recent weeks - punctuated by the rhythm of work, getting kids ready for school and seeing Danielle, Brittany and Amanda enjoying life again.

Danielle, who was hurt more seriously than her sister, passed another milestone recently by having her feeding tube removed.

Things are sufficiently hectic around the house that Melissa jokes she's looking forward to the kids going back to school.

For the Canns' other children, too, life has transitioned to something resembling normal after a year of hospitals, media coverage and other intrusions.

"It's better now that we're all together," said Erica, 15.

To outward appearances, it seems impossible that only a year ago both Brittany, then 12, and Danielle, then 15, were fighting for their lives after being critically wounded.

Sometime after the girls returned with their mother from a Saturday night Rascal Flatts concert at the Tweeter Center last Aug. 25, McDermott entered their Reservoir Street home and killed the family's dog before fatally shooting Elizabeth and wounding Brittany, and Danielle. Amanda, who was away from home at the time, alerted her father after Elizabeth failed to return repeated phone calls.

On Monday morning, Wayne and Melissa went to the Reservoir Street house where Melissa found Brittany unconscious and bleeding in the second floor hallway. Wayne Cann dialed 911 and emergency personnel responding to the scene found Danielle and her mother in the bedroom.

McDermott, who neighbors said behaved erratically, had been an on-again, off-again player in the family's life whose alleged sins included threats of violence.

Following the shootings, the former boyfriend shot himself in front of an oncoming commuter train in Walpole.

Initially, neither of the injured sisters were expected to survive. But Brittany emerged after five weeks in Hasbro Children's Hospital. Danielle required more than three months of hospitalization, not including follow-up visits and operations.

Danielle and Brittany both say they're feeling physically well now, and both look the part of healthy teenagers with amazingly little evidence of their life-threatening wounds. Brittany, nonetheless, lost sight in her left eye.

While she'll be repeating the year of high school she missed during her recovery, Danielle is already looking to the future.

"I'm thinking about going to the same art school my mother went to," the 16-year-old said.

Brittany, the ranking comedienne among the sisters, is getting ready to attend eighth grade this year, but jokes that she'd rather trade places with her older sister, a senior at Southeastern Regional Vocational Technical School. That's because Amanda only has one year of school left, she said.

More and more, the girls are returning to patterns that resemble typical teenage lifestyles, although memories of their mother and reminders of the violent attack clearly remain heart-breakingly fresh.

Danielle returned to her role as a counselor at Camp Finberg this summer, a camp also attended by sister Brittany. Amanda, meanwhile, has been working at a summer job.

A particular highlight of school vacation was being invited to attend a concert by the Jonas Brothers at the Comcast Center and being introduced to the band.

Recently, Danielle and Brittany attended Camp Angel Wings, a special two-day camp for bereaved teens run by the Mattapoisset YMCA where they released balloons in memory of their mother.

Through it all, the close relationship between the three sisters has shown through.

When the girls talked about their experiences in a video interview on thesunchronicle.com several months ago, Brittany affectionately kissed a shy Amanda and coaxed a smile from her older sibling.

The intervening months, friends say, seem to have reinforced the girls' spirits and strengthened their faith. Amanda, the older sister, also received an award because of her actions in alerting her father - and likely saving the lives of her sisters.

Those close to the family say the youngsters are anxious to get beyond the feeling of victimhood.

"They don't want to be thought of as the two girls who got shot," said one friend. "They want to get on with their lives."

Meanwhile, the shootings and their aftermath have had a deep and lasting effect on Norton and surrounding communities. Along with the revulsion that accompanied the killing of Elizabeth Cann and the wounding of her two daughters, the incident also had a unifying effect on the town.

"At the time it was complete disbelief," said Johnna Maria Marsala, program director of the Norton branch YMCA, whose son is a close friend of the Cann children. "We were all in shock."

But before long, Marsala said, townspeople began calling to ask what they could do for the family. A walk-a-thon, a candlelight vigil, concerts and fundraising efforts followed. Community spirit also spawned a financial support arm, called the Cann Girls Trust, aimed at soliciting contributions.

"It's typical of Norton that whenever someone's in trouble, people here want to help," Marsala said.

At Norton High School, where Danielle was a student, athletic teams and rank-and-file students were galvanized into action to help organize the walk-a-thon, Principal Ray Dewar said. Memories of both the horror and the pulling together of young people for a common cause are still rife.

"It's still pretty fresh," Dewar said, adding some students are still dealing with the tragedy.

However, he said the community's sentiments have been repaid many times over by the miracle of the girls' survival and continuing progress.

"They're an inspiration to everyone who knows them," he said.

Police Chief Brian Clark, who was a detective in charge of the investigation following the shootings, said it's no surprise that Norton and residents of other communities took the Cann girls' story to heart.

"It had an effect on everyone," he said. "It's always shocking when anything like this happens, but especially when it happens to young people who have their whole lives in front of them."

Johnny Lloyd, pastor of the Edgewood Community Church where the Canns attend, agreed.

"All of us love our kids more than anything," Lloyd said. "So, when anything happens to someone else's kids, your heart goes out to them."

After a private weekend vigil in memory of Elizabeth Cann, Wayne Cann and his family plan to leave on a short vacation this week away from the media and physical reminders of the tragedy that rocked their lives only 12 months ago.

It's just one more step in what Wayne Cann and his family hope will be their re-introduction to normal life - normal for three remarkable teenagers and a family who have faced a test that few of their neighbors will ever know.