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I reported this story over three months, spending time with Patrick and gradually gathering details about his life. His memory was often confused and fragmented, so I turned to his relatives and friends to check facts and fill in the gaps.
STORY AND DOWNLOAD LINKS
Main story: Patrick’s disease made him a mystery. Even to himself.
Print pages [...]

This story - originally published in The Palm Beach Post on Sunday, Aug. 10, 2003 - started as a simple feature about a troubled family. But when the mother began to hear disturbing reports about her son’s treatment in a local psychiatric hospital, I realized I had a much more complicated story. I worked my [...]

By KATHLEEN CHAPMAN
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
She called everyone “Mommy.”
Wrapping her arms around women and holding tight, the 2-year-old tried out the name on her foster mother, her preschool teachers and her caseworker at the Department of Children and Families. She seemed to hope that, if she called enough women Mommy, she could get just [...]

By KATHLEEN CHAPMAN
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
JUPITER ISLAND - In its century-long history, Gate House is said to have been occupied by Katharine Hepburn, Edsel Ford, several donkeys and an acclaimed playwright who did his best work on the front porch, drinking whiskey and wearing nothing but a towel.
The rambling home off South Beach Road [...]

By KATHLEEN CHAPMAN
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
As they came of age between 1940 and 1943, Opha Smith’s five sons left their small town in Indiana for places she had never heard of - Gey, Casablanca, Normandy, Salinas, New Guinea.
They volunteered to jump out of planes, crouch in machine gun nests and ride in plywood gliders. [...]

By KATHLEEN CHAPMAN
Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
JUPITER ISLAND - Some towns ban broken-down trucks, backyard chicken pens or shabby couches on the front porch.
On Jupiter Island, the battle against tackiness is a bit different. The town’s main eyesore? To many residents, it’s the grand mansions.
Some residents support a size limit on homes, saying they don’t [...]