GRADUATION DAY

Carol Guzy

The Washington Post

Nancy Passeri kisses the amputated arm of Mariama Conteh as Bintu and the girls prepare a goodbye tape during their last therapy session for them to take to their new home in Michigan. The psychological scars were even more difficult to heal than the physical disabilities. Nancy became a surrogate mother of sorts to all the children in the extended family that they formed since arriving from Africa. Nancy Passeri is wife of CEO of Staten Island University Hospital who donated medical care, housing and love for the children since they arrived. Joe Mandarino of Rotary Gift of Limbs and Nancy were instrumental in keeping the children in the US instead of the original plan to send them back with their new limbs. The two girls moved to the home of Deanie and Clay Elliott in Michigan who have assumed legal guardianship of Mariama. It didn't work out for Bintu who returned to NY and was later taken in by a family in Texas.

Carol Guzy, "GRADUATION DAY," in POYi Archive, Item #36744, http://archive.poy.org/items/show/36744 (accessed April 20, 2025).