NORFOLK -- A national television show will honor a woman one year after someone shot her in front of her children during a robbery at a home on Redmon Road.

Dawn Weiss was paralyzed from the chest down when the teenage assailants hit her with five bullets. After reading a letter from Weiss’ husband, Live with Regis and Kelly plans to honor Weiss Friday morning.

Weiss says the memory of May 2, 2007 is still clear in her mind. She was house-sitting with her two little girls when four teens armed with guns surprised him.

“They all had guns and said that they were here to rob us,” she recalled. “I just had my kids cuddle to me, and the only thing that was going through my mind was, ‘How am I going to get my kids out of here?’”

When she grabbed her girls and tried to take off in the car, the teens opened fire, hitting her five times.

Since the incident, the family moved to Florida, but came back to Norfolk for the teens’ trial in December.

“My life has been changed completely, and it’s hard living in a wheelchair now, raising my girls,” said Weiss. “I’m going to make the best of it, and keep living and raise my girls the best I can.”
That determination inspires her husband, Mike, and is why he wrote a letter to Regis and Kelly nominating her for Mom’s Dream Come True.

He told his wife’s remarkable story, and after reading the letter, producers chose her as one of the five women they will honor this Mother’s Day.

The family flew to New York Wednesday to tape the segment, which will air Friday, just days after the anniversary of the shooting.

The show’s producers are being tight-lipped about how exactly they plan on honoring Weiss, but for the Weiss’, it’s a new, amazing memory that will begin to wipe away the horrors from their past.