"UNCONDITIONAL LOVE"
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.
