A Pandemic Keepsake for a Beloved Grandgirl

A lot of people know Carilion wellness director Bud Grey because he helps keep them healthy. Fewer know the grandfather, who has a 2.5-year-old granddaughter, Cece, who lives in San Diego. Keeping up with the grands has been one of the most severe challenges of the pandemic.

Cece reads her own book. 

Bud figured that since he couldn’t visit Cece, he’d write a book for her—his first—and call it The Buddy Bridge, depicting Cece as a princess who goes on an adventure to visit her grandparents with the help of her animal friends.

Bud says his wife was a librarian and Cece's mother, his daughter, loves to read. "With so much out of my control with the pandemic and the distance between us, this at least was something I could control, and frankly convey my love for her.

My hope is she holds on to it as she grows up, and thinks of her grandfather."

"My hope is she holds onto it as she grows up, and thinks of her grandfather.”

The book is lavishly illustrated by Tom Arvis, who worked with Gran on "Mert the Mortician," a college newspaper comic strip many years ago. They are life-long friends. The book is an 8.5X11-inch softback.

As a grandfather who wrote a book for his first grandchild, I can certainly identify with Bud wanting to do something important. Giving kids something of yourself, something intimate, is enormously valuable to both you and the child and Bud got this one right. 

Bud Gray gets a kids from Cece.