SOMA Living October 2022

With the entire family lending time to care for Jack, Dan’s job changed too. He explained, “For many years I worked in traditional finance and then moved to crypto for a company called FalconX. It’s an institutional crypto brokerage firm.” The SOMA community is an integral part of the Torrey’s story. 25 years ago, Dan and Jesse were living in Brooklyn before relocating to SOMA. Dan was working on Wall Street, while Jesse was a photographer and art teacher. Jesse explained, “I grew up in Summit NJ, and didn’t really want to move there. We were looking for a more ‘crunchy’ town. The diversity and beautiful little village suited us perfectly.” Dan quickly added, “We feel extremely fortunate that we raised our kids in the Maplewood/South Orange community. With a child as complicated and special as Jack, the community is so accepting. Everyone greets each other with a warm smile and people in SOMA are always eager to help when needed. When Jack was sick, people brought us meals for over a year. A local swim team raised $5K to help with expenses. Neighbors walked dogs and helped with Anna.” Jesse continued, “It’s a wonderful community; so open and loving, holding neighbors up when they need it most. We love it here so much that we are in our third home in the community!” The Torrey’s are big advocates for SOMA Public Schools. Jesse stated, “Anna was always an exceptional student and the district had plenty of interesting opportunities to challenge her. Jack started school at The Marshall School but following his diagnosis he needed more support. The district was integral to finding appropriate out-of-district schools that provided Jack with what he needed.” Jack now attends The Universal Institute for adults with special needs. Like Jack, the clientele is fully dependent, but the program offers life enrichment with field trips and other appropriate activities. I concluded the interview by asking Dan and Jesse how they maintain life balance. Jesse stated, “One day at a time. We’ve learned over the years how to adapt; we have learned how to adjust things so we can continue doing the things we love. We travel, we socialize, we spend time with people we love. Our best advice to other families is to learn how to adapt. Life may not look how you expected it to, but it can still be wonderful .”

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OCTOBER 2022 | SOMA LIVING 9

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