Mozart and the Whale

Abstract

"Mozart and the Whale" is a true story about the lives of Jerry and Mary Newport. The Newport's share one thing in common, they both have Asperger's syndrome, which is a form of autism. Living in a world that doesn't understand or accept them, Jerry and Mary find happiness with each other. Despite their many differences, the love they have for each other helps them through the difficult times. "Mozart and the Whale" explains the difficulties of living with Asperger's through the eyes of someone who has experienced it.

Mozart and the Whale:

An Asperger's Love Story

Jerry and Mary met at a Halloween party in the year of 1993; Mary was 38 years old and Jerry was 45. Mary went to the party as Mozart and Jerry dressed up in a whale costume that he designed himself. The two started dating a few weeks after the party, going to the zoo and spending time at a park near the Pacific Ocean. They enjoyed going to the movies, watching T.V., and attending meetings together with other people with autism. It didn't take long for Jerry to realize that he found the love of his life so twenty weeks after meeting Mary, he proposed. Unfortunately, after getting married, the relationship started to lose the happiness and excitement it once had. During this time, the Newport's were featured in an article in the Los Angeles Times. A year later, they did an interview that aired on 60 Minutes. The Newport's were known as the "First Couple" with autism (Newport, Newport, Dodd, 2007, p. 177). People seemed to be fascinated with Jerry and Mary's love story but the love was fading away between them. After five years of marriage, the couple divorced and went their separate ways. During this time, Jerry and Mary battled with depression. Each of them attempted suicide but thankfully, recovered from these attempts. After being apart for years, the Newport's found each other again and remarried. The relationship between Jerry and Mary is better than ever and they are still married today.

As a child, Jerry Newport didn't like to be touched. He remembers pushing his mother away when she tried to hug him. Jerry said hugs made him feel like he was being squeezed to death and they caused him to shiver and flinch; he explains it as being "tactile-defensive" (2007, p.30). Jerry also had issues with emotional regulation skills. He wasn't able to show emotion during times of sadness. When his best friend passed away, he didn't shed a tear. Just the opposite of that, Jerry would get so upset if he missed a note while playing his trombone that he would throw the instrument with such force that he bent it (2007, p. 63). Jerry was also extremely awkward with communication and social skills. I didn't realize that it's difficult for someone with this form of autism to look at someone in the eyes when having a conversation. Jerry also claimed that he was always disoriented and confused on what to do in different social situations. Before reading this book, I knew that some people with autism like to focus on numbers but I didn't know the extent of it until Jerry described it. One example he gave was when he asked Mary the date she was born. Her reply was March 6, 1955 to which Jerry said, "March 6, 1955 was a Sunday. That's one hundred and nineteen years after the day they ended the siege of the Alamo, which was on March 6, 1836" (2007, p. 5). It was also amazing to me when Jerry described adding numbers from a license plate. He would add the numbers included on the plate and multiply the sum and then he would associate that number to a date in history. Another interesting fact that I was unaware of is that some people with Asperger's do not feel pain. Jerry fell out of a tree and split his head open on the metal lid of a septic tank without even realizing it. He didn't know he was hurt until he saw the blood (2007, p. 62). Finally, I found it interesting when Jerry was explaining a situation that happened after Mary moved in with him. His apartment was extremely messy with newspapers and garbage strewn about. When he came home from work one day, he became extremely upset because Mary had cleaned the entire apartment. Jerry said that a fury swept through him like a hurricane and he explained it as feeling "possessed." He said, "I felt dizzy, totally disoriented; the muscles in my neck were tensing" (2007, p. 153).

Mary Newport shared some of the same issues that Jerry had but she also had some of her own. At an early age, Mary became interested in art. She would stare at pictures for hours and as she got older, she began painting pictures herself. She became quite good with art but her illness caused her to have such self-doubt that she never really