cover image For the Love of Teddi

For the Love of Teddi

Lou Buttino. Praeger Publishers, $21.95 (198pp) ISBN 978-0-275-93686-0

In recounting the story of Teddi Mervis, who died at age 12 in 1982 from a brain tumor, Buttino, professor at St. John Fisher College in New York State, takes the reader on a three-year journey through many lives. We share the fierce love of Teddi's mother and father, parents of two other children, as they battle the inevitable. The family circle widens in the search for a cure, and then for accommodations for their dying child. This led to the establishment of Camp Good Days and Special Times in upstate New York, begun by Teddi's parents, friends and medical support personnel to provide a place where cancer-ridden children might experience an enjoyable normalcy in their brief lives. Teddi's story will offer strength and inspiration to others undergoing the devastating ordeal of childhood cancer. (Sept.)