So the young, rambunctious Askew clan returned to Utah in 1981. They built a big house at the mouth of a canyon. They bought a boat and nice cars. They surrounded themselves with creature comforts, high hopes and the camaraderie of an extended family and friends.

They didn't know that just 15 years later, John Askew wouldn't be able to keep a job. He would forget that sleeves go on arms and pants go on legs.

They didn't know the future was to be feared.

· · · · ·

Dr. John Roberts, a neurologist who specializes in movement disorders including Huntington's, notes that it takes a different form with almost everyone. But there are three common traits:

There's a movement disorder of some kind, though not necessarily chorea. It could be ataxia, which is difficulty walking. Occasionally a patient looks as if he has Parkinson's disease. Instead of being dancelike, the movements are slow and rigid.

Dementia, too, is a common thread. Subcortical reasoning and judgment decline. Concentration disappears.

And there's a psychiatric component that "goes with but is separate from the dementia. Most often, that's depression. But it can be psychosis, with delusions and paranoia. Some people have hallucinations or mania, obsessive compulsive disorder. There's a huge range of psychological symptoms that someone with Huntington's disease can have."

American folk singer and composer Woody Guthrie is perhaps the most famous person to have Huntington's disease. He died Oct. 3, 1967, 13 years after he was diagnosed with it. That diagnosis was hard-won. For years he had been branded a hopeless alcoholic and shuffled in and out of hospitals and mental institutions.

Coincidentally, Guthrie's story is almost identical to that of John Askew's mother, Idelle. She, too, was labeled a hopeless alcoholic and institutionalized. Her husband divorced her and moved away with his two grade-school-age sons, John and Bob. Eventually, they learned that she had died in that institution.

Her sons have never been sure if she was ever properly diagnosed. Their father had never talked about the illness, if he knew of it. They seldom spoke of their mother after the divorce.