The voices in this book belong to five families who invited award-winning filmmakers Julia Reichert and Steven Bognar into their lives for six years as their children were being treated in the pediatric oncology unit at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital Medical Center.
The stunning, heartbreaking and heartwarming footage they captured became the documentary A Lion in the House, which debuted to fantastic acclaim at the Sundance Film Festival and went on to be broadcast to millions by PBS.
In this book, those families reflect on what they lived through as their children endured the painful treatments that represent the very best that the scientific world has to offer. The mothers, fathers, siblings and other relatives revealed to veteran journalist Margaret A. McGurk their innermost thoughts, their emotional secrets and the tricks and techniques that helped them to survive, even when their journey ended with the ultimate loss.
Just as they opened their hearts to the filmmakers, these extraordinary people here share the hard-won wisdom that allowed them to rise to the demands they faced when their private worlds were shattered, when their faith was tested, when their family bonds were stretched to the breaking point.
In fact, the families of A Lion in the House are teachers, models and inspirations for everyone who deals with cancer and other life-threatening diseases.
Supplementing the families’ stories are the compassionate and insightful words of many medical professionals who cared for the children. In moving and eye-opening fashion, the professionals freely recount their unique perspectives on the families’ ordeals, as well as personal lessons they learned themselves through their time with the families and the filmmakers.
Finally, Reichert and Bognar and their colleagues contribute their own memories of the unprecedented project they brought to triumphant completion despite obstacles and setbacks so severe the film could have been abandoned many times.
