Birthday Party Is Bittersweet for Surviving Septuplets

--Sam and Patti Frustaci celebrated the birthday of their three surviving septuplets, who have made the last three years a confused period of public curiosity, therapy and medical bills. The mother said the 3-year-olds are “way behind” developmentally and “may never catch up.” The Frustacis became the first American couple to have septuplets on May 21, 1985, but four of the premature babies died. Patricia Ann, Richard Charles and Stephen Earl have mild cerebral palsy, are small for their age and have severe eyesight problems. Their brother Joseph, only a year and a week older, is much larger. “They look cute,” Patti Frustaci said. “But they don’t look good.” She said: “We love these kids, we’d do anything for them, but it’s not what I’d want for my life.” The triplets had spent months in intensive care after their birth at Childrens Hospital of Orange County. The Riverside couple have sued the doctor who treated Patti Frustaci with a fertility drug but no trial date has been set. She says the triplets can walk but are still in diapers, the boys have a chronic lung disorder and “none of them really talk. They can’t form sentences.” The children are being taught sign language and attend therapy. To care for the children, she remains on a leave of absence from her teaching job at Rubidoux High School. The couple threw a party for the triplets with cake and gifts. Patti Frustaci said they would also visit the small graves of the four babies who died. “You still don’t forget the ones who didn’t make it,” she said.

--Admirers of the late author John Steinbeck bid from $1 to $6,000 at an Englewood, Colo., auction of items he once owned. Drinking glasses went first, mostly one by one. Jim Hermanson, who called himself an unemployed writer, paid $16 for a water glass, and wine glasses sold for as much as $40. The $6,000 item was a painting of Gwyn Steinbeck, the author’s second wife. The $1 bid took a plastic measuring cup owned by the author’s son John Steinbeck IV. KCNC-TV editor Jim Syring of Denver paid $24 for a wine glass. “This will sit on my desk,” he said, “and I’ll sit back occasionally and have a glass of sherry in it . . . and remind myself that that was partly his downfall.”