For the Love of Teddi: The Story Behind Camp Good Days and Special Times - 2nd edition

226 Pages·2001·11.1 MB·English

by  Lou Buttino

FORTHE
UI/ECF
TEDCi
"Crossroads the Clown" and a camper visit the Statue Garden. Photo
by Stephen D. Cannerelli.
RRTHE
LOVEOF
TEDDI
The Story Behind
Camp Good Days
andSpeciallrnes
The 2001 Edition
LouBvttino
PMEGER Westport, Connecticut
London
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Buttino, Lou.
For the love of Teddi : the story behind Camp Good Days and Special Times / Lou
Buttino—2001 ed. [rev.],
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-275-97341-7 (alk. paper)
1. Mervis, Teddi—Health. 2. Brain—Cancer—Patients—Biography. 3. Tumors in
children—Patients—Biography. 4. Camp Good Days and Special Times (N.Y.). 5.
Recreational therapy for children. I. Title.
RC280.B7M463 2001
362.T9892994—dc21
[B] 00-065570
British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data is available.
Copyright © 2001 by Gary H. Mervis
All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be
reproduced, by any process or technique, without the
express written consent of the publisher.
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 00-065570
ISBN: 0-275-97341-7
First published in 2001
Praeger Publishers, 88 Post Road West, Westport, CT 06881
An imprint of Greenwood Publishing Group, Inc.
www.praeger.com
Printed in the United States of America
@r
The paper used in this book complies with the
Permanent Paper Standard issued by the National
Information Standards Organization (Z39.48-1984).
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 21
Contents
Preface VII
PART I. A WORLD COMES APART
1. That First Night 3
2. The First Day 9
3. The Ante Goes Up 13
4. A World Comes Apart 19
5. Wrestling with the Devil 25
6. Starting Over 29
7. Looking for Miracles 33
8. The New Terms of Hope 39
9. Hard Lesson 43
10. The Quality of Time 47
PART II. NEW TERMS OF HOPE 51
11. Back to School 53
12. New Hope 57
13. The Second Campaign 63
14. Waiting and Letting Go 69
15. A Dream Gets Born 75
16. Good Days 81
17. Special Times 87
VI Contents
18. The Sound of the Second Shoe 93
19. Starting Over 99
20. "I Love You Anyway" 103
21. Decline 109
22. The Second Camp 113
23. As Autumn Approached 121
24. A New Friend 125
25. Hope Rethought 131
PART III. OF DEATH AND A DREAM 137
26. "They've Come for Teddi" 139
27. Waiting 143
28. A Child Dies 147
29. Come Saturday Morning 155
30. "Don't Hang onto Good-Bye' 161
31. A Dreadful Silence 171
32. To Go on Anyway 177
PART IV. EPILOGUE 189
33. A Place in the World 191
34. Afterword 199
Preface
The idea for this book came on a cold February day in 1982 as I sat alone
with Teddi in her room on the fourth floor of Strong Memorial Hospital in
Rochester, New York. As I looked at Teddi, lying there in a deep coma, I
couldn't help but think back on all that happened during the almost three
years since she had first been diagnosed as having a malignant brain tumor.
Now, more than a decade later, the reach of Teddi's life has extended na
tionally and even internationally.
For the Love of Teddi shows how our family tried to make something positive
out of the devastation of childhood cancer. It started as an attempt to bring
childhood cancer out of the dark ages. Now we have built the largest, and
one of the most unique organizations in the world which deals specifically
with childhood cancer. Camp Good Days and Special Times is an obligation
fulfilled—an obligation adults and the healthy have to afflicted children.
In 1982, when Teddi died, childhood cancer was the second leading cause
of death in children—followed only by accidents. The statistics have not
changed much. What has changed, however, is the hearts and minds of
literally thousands of others—children, brothers and sisters, parents, grand
parents, sports and entertainment celebrities, politicians and so many more,
here and around the globe—who have become part of Teddi's story.
In preparing this book, Lou Buttino conducted more than fifty interviews
to ensure that Teddi's story would be told honestly and from many points
of view—that of family, doctors, nurses, classmates, friends, other children
with cancer, clergy and neighbors. For the Love of Teddi is a real life drama—
an American love story. But most of all it is an inspiration of how something
good and enduring can come from an experience as uniquely tragic as the
death of a child.
I hope as you read this book it will be as inspiring to you as Teddi's short
Vlll Preface
life was to all of us who knew and loved her. Though she is missed deeply,
her presence is felt in the faces and words of so many I have met and heard
from over the years. And now you join her circle of friends.
—Gary H. Mervis
PARTI
A World Comes Apart