The Art of Survival Irene Pinole, 76, right, sits down for dinner with the five other women she lives with in her Sacramento group home. Statistically speaking, Irene 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