NEW HARTFORD – Linsey Grover was already working as a scientist and proving herself capable of success when, in 2011, she gave birth to a baby boy and found she was capable of the extraordinary. Her son, Layne, was born with Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS).
Resulting from an abnormality in the fifteenth chromosome, the child’s hypothalamus is affected and creates a myriad of problems for the child as an infant and throughout his/her life. According to the Prader-Willi Association, approximately 1 in 15,000 babies are born with PWS each year. The website states, “PWS typically causes low muscle tone, short stature if not treated with growth hormone, incomplete sexual development, and a chronic feeling of hunger that, coupled with a metabolism that utilizes drastically fewer calories than normal, can lead to excessive eating and life-threatening obesity.”
Many parents of children of PWS are overwhelmed upon first hearing the news. In an interview Amber Battista, also a mother of a child with PWS, reflected on first learning of her daughter’s condition. “I was completely devastated. We didn’t know how to take it,” she said.
The Prader-Willi Syndrome Association highlighted Georgie’s story, also a child with PWS, by writing a letter in his “voice.” The letter touched on hyperphagia, a huge factor for PWS children when they are older. “Even after a big Thanksgiving meal, I’ll feel hungry. Ironic, isn’t it? A baby who was ‘content to starve’ will one day never be finished eating. When this happens, mommy may have to lock the cupboards and the refrigerator,” states the letter.
When he was first born, Layne had low muscle tone and could barely eat or breath and required a feeding tube and oxygen tank. After her three month maternity leave ran out, Grover decided to pursue her own jewelry business, rather than leaving her son to be cared for in the NICU. When asked if she would have stayed at her previous job Grover replied, “To me it wasn’t even a possibility.”
A graduate of Sherburne-Earlville, Grover had dreamed of continuing her career as a scientist, but was drawn to jewelry upon learning of her son’s condition. “I’ve always made handmade jewelry, since I was younger. I started making more jewelry to make money, which took off,” she said.
Her company, Linsey Layne Jewelry, grew so much that she created a website and later on opened her own store. This month Grover will celebrate the anniversary of Linsey Layne Boutique, which she opened in New Hartford in April of last year.
