Passing for Normal

Routine and heartbreak

In this episode Jared and Colleen discuss the importance of routine and how they continue to rely on it as a tool in coping with grief. Trigger warning, we talk about how something as simple as making coffee helped Jared on the day that Claire passed. We also discuss the recent news that has devastated the Rett community, of a child passing away due to complications within a clinical trial for gene therapy and how that has lead Colleen to use the platform that Rettland Foundation has to put a memorial fund together for that family. Details can be found at http://rettland.org/heros-memorial-fund/

IKEA and marraige

As promised, in this episode we discuss our 25th wedding anniversary, but not in a typical format. Since Colleen just got a new workspace, we decided to discuss what we have learned over the years from all of our adventures in IKEA. And we have moved a lot. We hope you enjoy this lighter episode with perspectives of the full range of our life from young and newly married to exhausted parents to grievers who probably shouldn't have been assembling furniture. Thank you for listening. Would love to know what you think, send us a message on Instagram @passing_for_normal

Celebrating

In this episode we discuss the October surprise that nobody was expecting, Colleen's sudden urge to celebrate Halloween, which is odd to observe from the Southern Hemisphere. We talk about how hard it is to get to a place of celebration in light of grief and how different it is to suddenly have the capacity.

Claire's Birthday

In this episode we discuss how awkward October is, between Rett Syndrome awareness in our new world where nobody knows about it, the anniversary of the diagnosis and Claire's birthday. Jared and Colleen share their separate strategies for dealing with the birthday and when to tell new people about Claire.

Rett Syndrome Awareness

October is Rett Syndrome awareness month so we dedicated this episode to things to be aware of, in regards to Rett syndrome, particularly what you CAN do to make it better.

R U OK

First and foremost, we talk about the 9th World Rett Syndrome Congress. Very exciting! Sept. 14 is R U OK day in Australia, an effort lead by a suicide prevention group. We talk about why this is so important and how having a child with special needs doesn't exempt you from all the normal stuff in life.

Love/hate of Social Media

In this episode we talk about how each of us uses social media differently and how complicated our relationships with it are. We also give a quick update/ follow up on Chloe's school.

High School stress and accordions with Chloe

Special guest Chloe wanted to come on and talk about how stressful school has been and how this is impacted by being an immigrant with a dead sister but nobody notices that. We also talk about how a love for accordions is getting her through and why Colleen irrationally went to great lengths to purchase a 90 year old German accordion.

Back Down Under

After an eventful trip back to California, we are settled back into winter to talk about how the trip home was in reality after we discussed what we expected in the previous episode. Spoiler, we had a great trip. We also talk about how happy we are to be sad.

Visiting a place with loaded history

I know we said we were taking a break but surprise! We decided that we wanted to share something that was a little more raw while we are in the space to talk about it. In this episode we talk about some of the reasons that made the last place we lived with Claire really hard. In our typical lighthearted way, we discuss some very heavy topics closely related to Claire's death and how going back to this place feels very different for the two of us. We realize this is sensitive and may upset some but we hope that it will also help others in similarly difficult situation feel less alone. We recognize it is not common to talk about circumstances around a child's death, but the fact of the matter is this is our story and talking about it helps to remember the reality of what we are working with. For those of you that choose to listen, we appreciate it and would love to hear your thoughts. You can message us on instagram @passing_for_normal