Everyone’s BFF
Rare genetic disorder is marked by a virtual lack of social inhibitions
GAYLE D’Angelo* worshiped the dazzling smile of her baby boy, Eli, and was puzzled when a fellow mom at his day care — a pediatrician — tactfully suggested she take him to see a geneticist.
It turned out her 10-month-old son’s grin was a marker for Williams syndrome, which results in zero social inhibitions.
Indiscriminately trusting, people with Williams syndrome are unconditionally loving to everyone they encounter. Yet this can leave them vulnerable to abuse because they are usually developmentally delayed and seeking sensory input — even from strangers.
“Eli will greet and hug someone he’s just met like a long-lost friend,” Gayle, 46, tells The Post. “It sounds like a cute thing — but now that he’s 18, it’s an issue.”
In 2011, the New England single mom invited medical journalist Jennifer Latson to spend three years following Eli. The result is Latson’s new book: “The Boy Who Loved Too Much: A True Story of Pathological Friendliness” (Simon & Schuster).
“I wanted to . . . document coming of age with Williams syndrome,” says Latson. “How do parents stop sheltering a kid with Williams — or do they ever?”
Gayle used to dread eating out because Eli would always zoom over to the waitstaff. But, with the help of a reward system for less exuberant behavior, he has learned to keep his impulses under control. Eli recently graduated from high school — where he was mainstreamed — and will pursue a school-to-work program until he is 21.
Meanwhile, in her book, Latson chronicles Eli’s first experience of summer camp at the age of 13 in Michigan, where all the campers had Williams syndrome.
“It was a wonderful place, and there was a kind of understanding [among] the kids,” says Gayle. “It was a safe place for Eli to break free from the reins and be himself.” *To protect their privacy, Gayle and Eli D’Angelo are pseudonyms.