LDS Family Will Suffer Generations of Tears (Generations of tears)
Deseret News 12Sep99 L5
By Lois M. Collins: Deseret News staff writer

In the first article in a Deseret News special on genetic diseases, author Collins focuses on LDS Church member Julie Askew and her family. Julie suffers from Huntington's Disease, a degenerative brain disease that wastes away parts of the brain. Physicians compare the disease to having Alzheimer's, multiple sclerosis and Parkinson's diseases simultaneously.

The disease is also hereditary, meaning that it will attack Julie's children after it puts her in a nursing home, unable to think, communicate or move. There is no effective therapy or treatment for the disease.

This article examines the disease in depth and how the family has coped with it over the years, including Julie's father, John Askew's struggle with the disease.