The following is part of the transcript of the
Nightline program on October 9,
1998 dealing with two scientists trying to
understand the condition of their child. Absent from the
printed transcript is the accordion playing and lyric
soprano voice of Gloria Lenhoff.
From NIGHTLINE:
Two Fathers, Two Scientists: A Father’s Love: When
Everything You Do Is Not Enough
Friday, October 9, 1998
(This was taken from an unedited, uncorrected
transcript produced by ABC News. The version below leaves
out the parts not dealing with Williams syndrome.)
ANNOUNCER This is a Nightline
Friday night special.
TED KOPPEL, ABCNEWS (VO) When it
comes to our children, we all have dreams. But to some,
those dreams can be as simple as crossing the street.
SYLVIA LENHOFF She can’t judge
the distance between a car and herself or herself and the
sidewalk ahead.
TED KOPPEL (VO) Or getting a
haircut. For two brilliant scientists, their dream is to
help their own children.
DR BARRY GORDON What little I can
do is where I’m going to try to push.
TED KOPPEL (VO) Tonight, a
father’s love when everything you can do is still not
enough.
ANNOUNCER From ABCNEWS, this is
Nightline. Reporting from Washington, Ted Koppel.
TED KOPPEL You try not to lay too
heavy a burden on your children but whatever your thoughts
may be on the hereafter here on earth, your kids are your
ticket to immortality. The greatest frustration that most
parents experience is the inability to keep their children
from making the same mistakes they did. Beyond that, you
want them to be smarter, stronger, better, happier, some
sort of living restitution for your own failures.
Obviously, it can’t always work out that way. Sometimes it
doesn’t even come close. Tonight, we’ll introduce you to a
couple of families in which it isn’t even remotely
possible.
Two scientists, one a doctor, the other a retired
biology professor, each with a child who suffers from a
disabling brain disorder. Under normal circumstances, a
doctor shouldn’t be treating a member of his own family,
especially not one of his own children. But as Robert
Krulwich takes us into the lives of these two families, you
will see that their circumstances are anything but normal.
ROBERT KRULWICH (VO) Across the
country in Costa Mesa, California, here’s another family
where the father is also a scientist who also has a child
with a brain disorder.
DR. HOWARD LENHOFF As you can
see, Gloria has a classically trained voice. One of my
favorite songs is called Oh Mio Babino Caro. (ph)
What does that mean, Gloria?
GLORIA LENHOFF Oh, my beloved
daddy.
DR. HOWARD LENHOFF Oh, thank you
very much. OK. And is it Italian and it’s by who?
GLORIA LENHOFF Puccini.
(Footage of Gloria singing)
ROBERT KRULWICH (VO) To look at
Gloria, again, you can’t see any obvious problem. She is
singing a sophisticated aria from memory in a foreign
language, but at the same time, if you ask her to tie her
shoes or write her name, for her that would be very hard.
(interviewing) Can Gloria today subtract seven from 10 and
get three?
DR. HOWARD LENHOFF Gloria cannot
subtract.
ROBERT KRULWICH She cannot?
DR. HOWARD LENHOFF No, maybe one
or two. She doesn’t subtract.
ROBERT KRULWICH (VO) Gloria has a
condition called Williams Syndrome. It begins with a tiny
mistake in the genes that leads to a most peculiar
consequence.
1ST GUEST Hi, this is lovely.
GLORIA LENHOFF Thank you.
1ST GUEST Your voice is very
pretty.
ROBERT KRULWICH (VO) Yes, it is,
but Gloria also has an IQ of only 65.
DR. HOWARD LENHOFF And therefore
the professionals call them retarded and they’re put in all
these retarded classes and maybe that’s where they belong
at first. But then we find a lot of the strengths they
have.
ROBERT KRULWICH (VO) Most
particularly, Howard Lenhoff says his daughter is intensely
musical. She has memorized 2,000 songs in 25 languages and
years ago, thinking like the scientist he was, Howard said
there is something missing, yes, but there is also
something special about my daughter. This is a talent that
maybe she could use later to earn a living, to make a life.
And so he has pushed and pushed his daughter. There are
still so many things she can’t understand and Howard hasn’t
that much time. He’s 70.
DR. HOWARD LENHOFF This is the
major question. You ask any person of a— a parent of a
handicapped child what their greatest concern is, it is
what will happen to them after we die.
ROBERT KRULWICH (VO) So here are
two fathers, two scientists. One is a retired biology
professor trying to give his daughter the means somehow to
lead her own life, if that’s possible. And the other, the
younger dad, is trying to give his boy a connection,
however slight, with the rest of the world, if that’s
possible. Both dads have all the learning you could ever
find in books and yet knowing all that they know, is that
enough?
(Commercial Break)
ROBERT KRULWICH I wanted to ask
you about your bar mitzvah. (VO) When Gloria
Lenhoff was born 43 years ago, her parents had no idea that
she had innate musical talent or could memorize songs so
well. In fact, in her religious confirmation when she was
13 and it’s time to stand up before the congregation and
sing from the bible ...
DR BARRY GORDON It’s been a long
time since I’ve remembered it.
DR. HOWARD LENHOFF I felt a
little embarrassed that she would not do that kind of job
so we decided to have a special evening at a smaller chapel
and invite only friends, not everybody who would be coming.
So it was all friends and family.
ROBERT KRULWICH Out of fear that
she would goof up?
DR. HOWARD LENHOFF Yeah. I felt
that way. I don’t know if you felt that way but ...
ROBERT KRULWICH Stage fright?
DR. HOWARD LENHOFF Not her. I had
it.
ROBERT KRULWICH What did, how was
her performance?
DR. HOWARD LENHOFF I would say
flawless.
SYLVIA LENHOFF Flawless is the
word, yes.
ROBERT KRULWICH (VO) And still
is.
GLORIA LENHOFF I could do you a
little part of it. (Sings in Hebrew a verse from Solomon’s
“Song of Songs.”)
ROBERT KRULWICH Just, yeah,
that’s all I want is a little part. (VO) The fact that she
could learn it and keep it permanently in her head so
startled Howard he wondered well what else can she do? Are
there others like her? It turned out there are so many
Williams kids Howard has created a summer camp one week
every year, partly for Gloria. Here she’s a song leader and
a teacher and partly this is a place where you can learn
more about Williams Syndrome.
DR. HOWARD LENHOFF Sing me re.
ALEC Re.
ROBERT KRULWICH (VO) Alec, for
example, has perfect pitch. Play him any note or any note
series ...
DR. HOWARD LENHOFF And now I’m
going to do three of them together, all right?
ALEC Do, fa and la.
ROBERT KRULWICH (VO) Normally,
this is a rare skill but lots of Williams kids can do it,
says Howard. Alec has been doing it from a very early age.
ALEC Like two and a half months.
ROBERT KRULWICH No!
ALEC’S MOTHER That’s absolutely
true.
ROBERT KRULWICH You would know
cause you’re his ...
ALEC’S MOTHER I’m his mother.
ROBERT KRULWICH Oh.
ALEC’S MOTHER He’s saying ooooh
and I played the piece again and the same note he matched
it and I just ...
ROBERT KRULWICH (VO) Williams
people do have extraordinary and mysterious abilities, but
their disabilities are profound. When I asked Howard and
his wife Sylvia if you could give Gloria one extra thing,
help her do one thing better, what would it be?
SYLVIA LENHOFF Cross a street
safely.
GLORIA LENHOFF I remember when I
was crossing the street and a car ran over me and I got hit
really bad and my arm was broke and my leg was broken. I
was dragged in the street and I was very unconscious and I
was miserable.
ROBERT KRULWICH Did you see the
car before it hit you?
GLORIA LENHOFF Yes, I did.
ROBERT KRULWICH (VO) She could
see it, but she couldn’t judge the distance. And ever
since, Howard says, he’s been afraid to let her go anywhere
on her own. So he drives her. He packs up her concert gear.
He’s at every one of her performances always. So, now he’s
out raising money to create a live in community at a
university for Williams kids, again, whatever it takes to
keep his daughter safe.
(Commercial Break)
ROBERT KRULWICH (VO) It’s the
same with Howard. In many ways, Gloria is a mystery and
always has been.
DR. HOWARD LENHOFF What goes on
in her mind, she’s thinking at night, are things that we’ll
never understand.
ROBERT KRULWICH (VO) Gloria’s
brain is so different from other brains in ways we don’t
yet understand. But for Howard, who is a biologist, this is
an opening. He can talk about Gloria at scientific
meetings. He can urge other scientists to investigate her
condition. Why is she so musical? What’s in her brain that
makes her different?
DR. HOWARD LENHOFF And I just
feel and always have felt that Gloria is a national
treasure.
ROBERT KRULWICH (VO) Celebrating
your child as an intellectual puzzle, that’s one way for a
father to honor his child. But it does keep the child at a
distance. (interviewing) Which makes you lonely as a dad a
little bit?
DR. HOWARD LENHOFF A little bit,
yes.
ROBERT KRULWICH For Howard
Lenhoff and for Barry Gordon to be fathers and scientists,
to be close and yet distant, it’s not easy. The distance,
the science, it helps a little. But when you hang around
with them for a while, as we did, what you mainly see is
that they’re fathers and they’re in love. I’m Robert
Krulwich for Nightline.
TED KOPPEL I’ll be back with a final
thought in a moment.
(Commercial Break)
TED KOPPEL A friend who’s a
receiving alcoholic told me the other day about a support
group he’d once participated in. One of the other
participants was recounting how rough things had been for
him lately. Don’t worry, said the group leader, the good
Lord won’t give you more than you can handle. Yeah, sighed
the man, I just wish he didn’t have quite as much
confidence in me. The good Lord must have a huge amount of
confidence in Barry and Rene Gordon and in Howard and
Sylvia Lenhoff and it is clearly not misplaced. As I said
at the outset, we all seek happiness for ourselves and for
our children, but it’s not happiness that makes us grow,
it’s challenge. That’s our report for tonight. I’m Ted
Koppel in Washington.
For all of us here at ABCNEWS, good night.
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