By Michael Bratcher
Dr. Jim Rand devoted his career to understanding how cells communicate with one another. Little did he suspect that this research would one day lead him back to his own family.
When Jeremy Rand was a kindergartener, he figured out that one-quarter of one-quarter was one-sixteenth. He knew his multiplication tables. And he read novels written for third graders. But if you asked the 5-year-old whether someone in a photograph looked happy, he couldn’t answer unless his parents used their fingers to trace the person’s mouth. Oh, Jeremy would say at last, he’s smiling.
Jeremy’s parents, Drs. Jim and Kathy Rand, had long understood that their son was different from other children. Even at four months, when the Rands moved from Wisconsin to join the scientific staff at the Oklahoma Medical Research Foundation, Jeremy became easily upset. He was extraordinarily sensitive to his environment; certain smells bothered only him, and he required soft clothing without tags inside. He clung to his mother, crying and shunning interaction with others. Was this, Kathy wondered, what all parents go through?
