May’s Miracle - May and Leslie Lemke (severely mentally challenged boy plays Liberace’s theme song!)

Leslie is alive and well today, and still playing marvelously, in North Central Wisconsin. He lives with Mary Parker, May’s daughter, who has lovingly taken on the caregiver role after May died in 1993. Leslie could have been a millionaire, but instead Leslie and Mary live a very modest lifestyle in an aging home in Arpin. Mary feels, as did May, that Leslie’s gift of music is a miracle that should be shared unselfishly with others without undue gain or exploitation. Today Leslie is more verbal than ever before, more musically accomplished, and, increasingly, more creative and witty. His transition from replication to improvisation to creative ability has been impressive, and is a blueprint for similar progress I have seen in other savants—especially if one observes them over enough time rather than as a single snapshot.