One day, Terrie Suica-Reed— only 30 years old— finds a lump in her breast and, although none of them know it, the cancer diagnosis that follows forever changes her, her husband, Tom, and a young man named Merle Thompson’s lives. After treatment, a new lease on life prompts her to follow her dream of becoming a teacher and from the first moment Terrie meets the always smiling Merle in a middle-school class, she sees a bright light drowning in a sea of darkness.

Disheveled, swimming in oversized hand-me-downs, and constantly kicked out of class for being ill-prepared, his sunny disposition in the face of all touches her and the teacher-in-training realizes there is as spark inside this young mind that is dangerously at risk of being forever snuffed out by a woefully over crowded education system and, as she learns, an unmoving mother. Terrie opens her heart and mind to Merle, who absorbs these unexpected gifts like a sponge and when her husband, Tom meets him, the three fit together perfectly and an unlikely family is created.

But life can be cruel and one misstep leads to another and another until…Merle is at risk of becoming just another statistic, forcing Terrie, Tom, and an entire town to fight for the life of the child they call “Our Merle. ” NOTHING SHORT OF AMAZING is not another story of “love conquers all”; but a story of “love + persistence + risking everything for that love=hope.

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