HUDSON, Ohio—Ernest H. Zielasko, founding editor and publisher of Tire Business, who retired from the trade press in 1987, has authored his first book. Jeff's Denial, published by Hudson-based Harbortown Press, is subtitled ``The Moving Story of a Teenage Son Who Fought Leukemia By Attacking Life.''
The 167-page, soft-cover edition chronicles the courageous struggle of the author's son, Jeffrey, who was fiercely determined not to allow the dreaded disease to bar him from a dynamic lifestyle.
Diagnosed with leukemia in 1977, the then-17-year-old high school senior tried hard to lead a normal life despite painful medical treatments and frequent hospitalization. With the disease in remission for a time, he fulfilled his dream of entering Rochester Institute of Technology to study printing.
Later, after the disease resurfaced, he was forced to drop out of college, then stubbornly returned to campus the following fall—as much to spare his mother the pain of watching her son decline as to be with student friends. The young man's condition continued to deteriorate, and he died Oct. 9, 1979, at the Cleveland Clinic.
The author expresses the hope that the book's surprisingly upbeat account of young Jeffrey's refusal to yield to the disease will offer encouragement to others facing similar medical problems.
``My mission was to help people with life-threatening diseases face the rest of their lives the best way they can,'' said Mr. Zielasko, who penned the book over a period of several years, working in a small office near his Hudson home.
Now that the book has been published, Mr. Zielasko, 80, said he's thinking of editing and publishing additional works, possibly in collaboration with authorities on various other topics.
Jeff's Denial (ISBN 0-9673436-0-7) can be purchased at $14.95 per copy plus postage and handling ($4 for one book, $2 for each additional copy) from Harbortown Press, P.O. Box 624, 110 W. Streetsboro St., Hudson, Ohio 44236. Ohio residents should add sales tax.