BEEN THERE, FOUGHT THAT BIG SISTER HELPS MAX IN BATTLE WITH CANCER.

Byline: DENNIS McCARTHY 

CALABASAS - The best book of the year is only eight pages long, written in pencil and illustrated with crayon stick-figures. Yet it's so beautiful, it will break your heart.

It's called ``My Life,'' written by a 9-year-old Pollyanna named Emily Buelow.

When you meet Em, her 8-year-old brother, Max, and the rest of the Buelow family, you'll never forget them.

Families just don't come any stronger or closer than this one.

What they have been through - and the long emotional journey they are still on - is a story of courage, of determination and, most of all, of incredible love.

``I am a child named Emily and I had a bone marrow transplant in January 2001. A bone marrow transplant is when your bone marrow is not healthy. Your bone marrow helps keep you alive.

``When I came out of the hospital my cheeks were so chubby that I couldn't even smile. I also had to wear a blue mask. A lot of kids stared at me. Sometimes they would make fun of me, but I don't mind because it's not every day you see a kid wearing a blue mask. It's not like they're the latest fashion!

``I also lost all my hair so I was bald. So people wouldn't know I was bald my mom got me a wig. I wanted a pink one but my mom said it didn't look real, so I got a red one instead. It made my head itch a little so I got a 'hip hat' instead. It has hair on the side and you have to wear a hat with it or else it looks like you're wearing underwear on your head.

``I also had to take lots of physical therapy. The lady who gave it to me is named Paula, and she was very nice. We would take walks and stretch. When I was done with physical therapy I could run and jump.

``I had to go once a week to a clinic for blood and platelets. After a while I started to make my own blood and platelets. When summer was over the doctor said I was OK to go back to school. I was very happy. I was also scared and nervous. I wondered if my teacher was going to be mean, but when I found out it was Mr. Still I felt a little better.

``When I finally went to school I felt scared again. I was worried that I wouldn't make any friends. But I made a few friends, their names are Yasmin, Sarah, and Natasha. They are some of my best friends. When I had to eat lunch in the office they would come and eat lunch with me. Now I can play on the playground.

``I have been through so much and I overcame everything. I am an amazing child. PS - this book is rated G. The end.''

Tracey Buelow put down the pages Em wanted her to check over, and started crying.

It wasn't like her to cry in front of her daughter. The entire Buelow family had promised to stay upbeat around Em during the five years she's been in and out of Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, fighting a deadly form of leukemia.

But these tears were OK for Em to see. These tears held joy and pride, not pain or sorrow.

``What do you think?'' Em asked her mom, and her grandma, Mary Ellen Hivner, who moved from Pennsylvania to be with her daughter and granddaughter in this life-and-death fight against leukemia.

``It's beautiful, honey,'' Tracey said, looking at her own mother, who was also in tears. ``So very, very beautiful.''

It was true, every word of it. Her daughter was an amazing little girl to be able to go through all the pain and suffering she had endured since 1997, when she was diagnosed with leukemia at the age of 4.

Amazing to come out the other side of this long, painful journey, still a Pollyanna with a wonderfully wry sense of humor.

She spent more than three months in complete isolation, blind and comatose - her 50-pound body bloated and pumped full of enough painkillers to numb the pain of a 250-pound man.

There were weeks on end where Em wouldn't talk or respond to anyone, not even her own family, because she had hit the wall and her body was shutting down - giving up.

But her mind wouldn't give up. She took everything the doctors and therapists threw at her, and came back strong, beating her leukemia into remission.

And now, here was Em walking down the hallway of her family's Calabasas home to show her life story to Max - to cheer up her 8-year-old brother who is now in his own painful, frightening fight with cancer.

For a few months last year, they were in Childrens Hospital together - Em on the fourth floor, Max on the sixth - staying in touch by video phones.

Tracey and her husband David moved to a house a few blocks from the hospital to be near Em and Max around the clock, while Mary Ellen stayed at home in Calabasas with their other child, Ilsa, 6.

When the doctors told Em she could finally get up and walk around, the first walk she wanted to take was to visit Max.

The chemotherapy treatments for his bone cancer had left him bald and depressed, and Em wanted to tell him not to sweat it.

``It's OK to be bald, Max,'' Em said. ``I was bald three times and the hair grows back.''

Max looked at his sister and frowned. He wasn't buying any of her Pollyanna optimism. He was a realist.

``You're Emily, and you didn't mind it,'' he said. ``I'm Max, and I do mind it.''

Then they laughed - the Pollyanna sister and her realist brother.

``For so long, Max has been an important shoulder for Em to lean on, fighting her leukemia, and now she's there supporting him in his fight with cancer,'' Tracey said.

Her daughter is an incredibly strong woman with a soft heart, Mary Ellen said Friday, watching Tracey play with Ilsa and the Buelow's new baby, Lena, 6 months old. Nearby, Max and Em are petting Em's guinea pig, Hamlet.

``Tracey knows she has to be careful not to shut the other children out and push them into the background,'' Mary Ellen said. ``She and David have tried to make life as normal as possible for all the kids through this - always eating together as a family, and spending as much time as possible together.''

But when the children are in bed, and it's just the two of them sitting at the kitchen table talking about life, ``we have our cries,'' Mary Ellen said.

It's like this, Tracey added: ``You don't waste time with self-pity or saying 'poor me,' because if you do, you lose your children. Not that you don't have your moments, because you wouldn't be human if you didn't.

``But you have to be strong for them, very strong.''

In early August, Max will be back in Childrens Hospital for an operation to remove a cancerous rib. Only then will doctors know whether the cancer has spread to the nearby tissue.

Max, the realist, is not afraid to speak his mind, his mother says.

``He's not afraid to say 'This really sucks, Mom, but we're going to get through it,''' she said.

Em, the Pollyanna, tells Max not to sweat it. He's going to be fine, and back with her soon at Lupin Hill Elementary School in Calabasas.

And don't worry about the hair, she tells him. It grows back. Hers did.

It's all there on page 4 of the best book of the year - ``My Life'' by Emily Buelow.

CAPTION(S):

2 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Max Buelow, 8, was diagnosed with cancer after Emily, 9, right, with her pet guinea pig, Hamlet, had a bone marrow transplant for leukemia.

(2 -- color) Mom Tracey Buelow, left, sits in the shade with her children, from left, Ilsa, 6; Lena, 6 months; Max, 8; and Emily, 9.

Charlotte Schmid-Maybach/Staff Photographer