After reading the article about the 5 year old girl with narcolepsy, something struck me like a thunderbolt. Of course, I can't prove the correlation, but maybe there is something here that is common to people with narcolepsy. My mother always told me that I was a great sleeper when I was a baby. When I was 6 months old, a very bad strain of pneumonia was going around and many of the children on our Brooklyn street were sick. Babies were especially at risk and the hospitals were overflowing with cases of very young children and babies with pneumonia. Like Makenna, I contracted the illness and I was very, very sick. My mother and father took turns holding me all day and night so the fluid wouldn't build up in my lungs. Our neighbors, the McKenna's, had a little boy the same age as me. They took him to the hospital for care. My parents were so fearful of leaving me in the overcrowded hospital that they decided not to bring me in for treatment. The McKenna's baby died. My mother told me how inconsolable Florence and Bill were. Ever since this incident, my mother, who had eleven children, was known for her wisdom and good sense regarding any kind of illness. She soon became known in the neighborhood as "Dr. Joan" because she was able to keep me alive when so many children had died that winter. Perhaps the pneumonia virus may trigger a part of the brain related to sleep disorders. I certainly don't know, but the coincidence is kind of uncanny. Don't you think?