Beverly Sills, operatic great, tells of her two severely handicapped children in her pictorial autobiography, Bubbles. Her own natural daughter is deaf and her stepdaughter is also severely handicapped. She writes:

"I was now only thirty-four, but a very mature thirty-four. In a strange way my children had brought me an inner peace. The first question I had when I learned of their tragedies was a self-pitying 'Why me?' Then gradually it changed to a much more important 'Why them?' Despite their handicaps they were showing enormous strength in continuing to live as normal and constructive lives as possible. How could Peter and I show any less strength? After all that had happened, I felt we could survive anything."