Creating Global Communities, page 2

Frank and Joyce Graff and son, 1976

When I was a student at Cornell University in 1962 I married a wonderful man by the name of Frank Graff. Frank was a budding historian, a chess champion, and a fine baseball player. He also had a condition known as von Hippel-Lindau syndrome, or VHL, a rare disorder very poorly understood at that time.

Over the next fifteen years, in addition to our five academic degrees, we earned an "advanced degree" in VHL the hard way -- Frank lost his sight, went through five rounds of brain surgery, five rounds of spinal surgery, and two rounds of kidney surgery. It was a very lonely time for both of us.

The doctor told us that there were only nine affected families in the world. We now know that it wasn’t even true! but it was a terribly isolating and discouraging thought – no one could possibly understand what we were going through. Frank died in 1977.

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