The Art of Survival As has happened on so many previous nights, Irene Pinole, 76, kisses her roommate, Terry Gordon's hand, as they get ready for bed in their Sacramento group home. Statistically speaking, Pinole should have been dead by the age of 10. Against the longest of odds for a child with Down syndrome in her era, Irene grew up and grew old. Now she is 76, ranking her among the oldest Down survivors on record. May 2004

Anne Chadwick Williams, Sacramento Bee