Cerebral Palsy

It wasn't long before Gorman got to know the whole family- including the couple's three children, Alex, 13, Eric, 12, and Ellen, 11.

The families socialized frequently, and Gorman says the Grenatas were devoted parents who were a regular presence at their children's school and extracurricular events.

In addition to keeping the kids busy, they taught them responsibility and kept a neat house and yard, Gorman says, with one notable exception: a rusted pick-up sitting out front.

Gorman asked Linda why they kept it.

Again, the children were their driving force- this time literally.

"That's Kevin's," Linda explained.

"He's going to fix it up for Alex when he learns to drive." UVA women's rowing coach Kevin Sauer reconnected with Granata more than 15 years after he'd coached him on the Purdue club rowing team when they both moved to Charlottesville.

"He saw my name somewhere, called me, we went to lunch a couple of times," Sauer recalls.

"It was good to rekindle the days from 15 or 16 years earlier." Sauer says Grenata was interested in the relationship between fatigue and back pain.

Since rowing works- and tires- the back, Sauer and Grenata discussed collaborating on research.

"I'd fatigue the backs," Sauer says, "and he'd do the research." They never began the project, and now, Sauer sadly says, "we won't." When Sauer heard that Grenata was on...

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