WE ROAR Magazine April 2024 - Magazine - Page 9
I'm constantly triggered… especially if one of my
daughters shows signs that they are struggling.
But I'm driven by wanting to make things better
for them and not like being on their case all the
time, being overprotective, but doing what I can
to show them that they're loved and accepted
how they are, advocating for their needs. And
these little baby steps that I'm taking to try to
make society better ... and the world a more
hospitable place. Nobody wants to cure our
delightful, quirky, Autistic, and ADHD, and
neurodivergent kids. But we would like this
planet to be more inhabitable for them. So this
keeps me going. I've always got a hopeful
outlook.
And although I have been through a devastating
loss; it was extremely traumatic as well, I'm
talking to counsellors and therapists now. I’m
not just talking about bereavement and child
loss and grief, I'm also talking about the sheer
horror of the situation. I've got all that, but I
keep going by being forward-looking and
keeping a sense of humour as well.
If you don’t mind, there are two points I'd love
to extrapolate on. At the beginning, we talked
a lot about so much of your work being
around belonging. I get a real sense that
perhaps that's where, maybe not all of it, but
where a lot of it comes from is maybe from
the loss of your son that you've experienced. I
guess, touching a bit more, too, on your
humour. In our house, we have a very dark
sense of humour.
We have a gallows humour. I talk a lot about
awkward meetings... Some people, when your
child dies, some people avoid you because they
don't know what to say... So I tried to make light
of it.
So I'd got people saying,
