Max's Page

Maxwell Soke Brenner was born June 22, 2007 at Marin General Hospital in Greenbrae, California. Max was named after Matt's paternal grandfather and Serena's maternal grandfather. Max was born with an overgrowth disorder called Beckwith-Wiedemann Syndrome. Shortly after his birth, Max was transferred to the neo-natal intensive care unit at UCSF. The doctors originally thought Max showed mild signs of BWS but his condition would worsen over the next three months. Max passed away on September 21, 2007 and is buried at Home of Peace cemetary in Colma, California.

Max Photos

Max's First Day Max was born June 22, 2007 at 1:31 pm. He was 7 lbs 3 oz and was 19 inches long.

Max Ambulance RideMax's first ride across the Golden Gate bridge was in a UCSF ambulance - he got this little bear.

Max and MomEarly bonding between Serena and Max.

Welcome to Holland

by Emily Perl Kingley

I am often asked to describe the experience of raising a child with a disability to try to help people who have not shared that unique experience to understand it, to imagine how it would feel. It's like this...

When you're going to have a baby it's like planning a fabulous vacation trip-to Italy. You buy a bunch of guidebooks and make your wonderful plans. The Coliseum...Michelangelo's David...the gondolas of Venice. You may learn some handy phrases in Italian. It's all very exciting.

After months of eager anticipation, the day finally arrives. You pack your bags and off you go. Several hours later, the plane lands. The stewardess comes in and says,, "Welcome to Holland."
"Holland?!?" you say. "What do you mean, Holland? I signed up for Italy! I'm supposed to be in Italy. All my life I've dreamed of going to Italy."

"But there's been a change of plans," says the stewardess. "They've landed in Holland and there you must stay."

The important thing is that you haven't landed in a horrible, disgusting, filthy place full of pestilence, famine and disease. It' just a different place.

So you must go out and buy new guidebooks. And you must learn a whole new language. And you will meet a whole new group of people you would never have met.

It's just a different place. It's slower paced than Italy, less flashy than Italy. But after you have been there awhile and you catch your breath, you look around and you begin to notice that Holland has windmills, Holland has tulips, Holland even has Rembrandts.
But everyone you know is busy coming and going from Italy, and they're all bragging about what a wonderful time they had there. And for the rest of your life you will say, "Yes, that's where I was supposed to go. That's where I had planned."

And the pain of that will never, ever go away because the loss of that dream was a very significant loss.

But if you spend your life mourning the fact that you didn't get to Italy, you may never be free to enjoy the very special and lovely things about Holland.