EDITOR'S LETTER
MISSION STATEMENT
Platinum is a monthly, glossy
lifestyle magazine published
by the Detroit Jewish News.
It reflects all aspects of life in
the Metro Detroit Jewish com-
munity, including decor, fashion,
food, health, spirituality, books,
shopping and more. Whether
profiling a unique member of
our community or the latest hot
spot or trend you should know
about, Platinum's got it covered.
Our goal is to be a part of the
fabric of the Jewish community
and to reflect those who have
created it — our readers.
WE LOVE TO SPOIL OUR KIDS. As a parent, the
temptation to give your child what makes him happy — a
third cookie, the extra half-hour of TV, permission for a
trip with friends — can be intense. As long as the neces-
sary discipline doesn't fly out the window, there's no harm
in an occasional indulgence.
Tobias Beck Nelson would have turned 1 this past
August. His parents, Ilana Stollman, formerly of Oak Park,
and her husband, Kurt Nelson, would have thrown their
first and only child a party, lavish with doting love and
affection. My husband, Jeff, and I would likely have flown
to their home in New York City to celebrate with Ilana,
one of my oldest friends, just as Ilana had come home
to Michigan to celebrate my son's first birthday with me
— coincidentally, the day she told me she was pregnant.
Ilana had a tumultuous pregnancy, with so-called
morning sickness the whole nine months. But on August
25, 2005, she gave birth to her beautiful, perfect brown-
haired boy. Ten hours later he was gone.
Ilana and Kurt have spent the last 14 months trying
to understand why. There was no indication during her
pregnancy that anything was amiss, just as there was no
indication immediately following Toby's birth. Ilana fell to
sleep after delivering and bonding with her son, knowing
she would wake up to the supreme joy of her life.
Instead, she was roughly awakened in the middle of the
night by nurses telling her something was wrong.
Ilana and Kurt allowed a partial autopsy on their son.
They waited for results. For close to a year. The best
explanation that doctors could offer them, close to a
year later, is that they think the cause was mitochondrial
disease, a complicated and little-understood range of
disorders. The disease, which affects the cell's ability to
produce life-sustaining energy, manifests itself in a broad
range of nightmares. When not fatal, the disease causes
some affected children to suffer severe pain, seizures and
muscle weakness; others have occasional migraine head-
aches. Ilana had never heard of mitochondrial disease. She
had no family history of it. She and Kurt were completely
blindsided.
Devastated, Ilana and Kurt are also strong, coura-
geous people. They knew they had to get on with their
lives. They knew — with fervor, and perhaps to prove the
universe wrong — that they wanted to have a child. But
because there is so little understood about this strange
disease, the doctors cannot tell them whether another
biological child might suffer from the same illness. Worse,
there is a seemingly insurmountable length of red tape to
be cut. Ilana and Kurt are forced to keep waiting.
To keep her sanity and honor her son, Ilana has part-
nered with the United Mitochondria' Disease Foundation
(umdf. org) with a fund in Toby's name for research pur-
poses. For more information about Toby and mitochon-
dria' disease, log on to tobiasbecknelson.com .
And cherish, love — and yes, spoil — your babies.
Lynne Konstantin, editor
lkonstantin@thejewishnews.com
PLATINUM
giveaway
A new winner every month!
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for details
last month's
winner
Jim, of Walled Lake,
won September's
4 tickets to a Tigers game.
Congratulations!
• j(rklifvf•Veipcli-7 (1/
..YineAriee35
October giveaway:
$50
gift certificate
From Lolly Ella
West Bloomfield Plaza
6706 Orchard Lake Road
248.851.3325
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how to win
Enter to win at JNonline.us and press the Platinum giveaway
button. This contest opens at noon on the first Thursday of the
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Winners will be chosen and notified by the end of each month.
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the following issue of Platinum.
JNPLATINUM • OCTOBER 2006 •
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