The Emmy's & Temple Grandin

My first time ever hearing of Temple Grandin was last December or January of this year when I was sitting on the couch, watching an HBO movie and a preview to the 'Temple Grandin' made for HBO movie came on.  I was mesmerized by this preview.  It described how this woman who spoke her first words at nearly 4 years of age (she is now 62) was diagnosed with autism by her first doctor and her parents were told she'd never talk and would have to be institutionalized. So little was known about autism way back then. 

The HBO movie, starring Claire Danes (who did a phenomenal job) first aired on February 6th.  I marked the date on my calendar and couldn't wait to watch the movie. 
The movie definitely lived up to my expectations.

During the movie,  it was very emotional to watch the unending efforts of Temple's mother, who was told that "lack of bonding" with her child might have caused the autism, give Temple all the opportunities that she possibly could to help Temple learn to speak, to go to high school, college, and grad school, and to become a highly productive scientist all while tolerating cruel taunts by her school mates.  Temple has a PhD in animal science and currently teaches at Colorado State University.

Through her special gift of being a highly visual person and being able to memorize everything she has ever seen, has also allowed her to design curved chute and race system livestock handling facilities that are used all over the world and she is responsible for designing half of livestock handling facilities in the North America.  Temple is one of the biggest advocates for the humane treatment of animals.

So you could just imagine how ecstatic I was when our good friends, the Taylors, invited Dominic and I
over to their home to spend an afternoon with Temple in April of this year.  Definitely the highlight of my year. 

I just pre-ordered the HBO DVD to be released in August, to beat the Emmy rush.  This movie is up for 14 Emmy's!  Well deserved.  I'm confident it will come out ahead in most, if not all the categories it's up for.

I think this calls for a pre-Emmy Temple Grandin movie night party.




Happy Thursday!