Francene Noel: finding hope, rhythm and purpose.

I'm Francene Noel, a Jamaican born mother, writer, and autism advocate living in Ontario, Canada.

My life has rarely unfolded according to plan. I trained as a lawyer, built a career, and entered motherhood carrying many of the hopes parents quietly hold for their children. Then came a diagnosis that changed the course of our family's life: autism spectrum disorder, first for my son and, years later, for my daughter.

What followed was not the life I had imagined, but it became the life that taught me the most about love, resilience, acceptance, and the kind of advocacy no classroom can teach.

Over the years, my family and I have called Jamaica, New Brunswick, Barbados, Nova Scotia, and Ontario home. With each move came new communities, new schools, new systems, and new challenges as we navigated diagnoses, therapies, education, and everyday family life. Often, we found ourselves starting over in unfamiliar places without a roadmap or anyone ahead of us showing us the way. Through every transition, my faith and my family remained my foundation.

A few years ago, I began sharing our story online. I wanted to talk honestly about autism and parenting, including the difficult moments, the unexpected victories, the questions, the laughter, and everything that does not fit neatly into a clinical description.

That space grew into @diaryofadrummerboysmom, a community where autism parents and families could see parts of their own experiences reflected in something real. It became a place for parents who were tired of seeing only the clinical or carefully curated versions of life and simply wanted the truth of what this journey can look like.

My memoir, Offbeat: A Story of Autism, Acceptance, and Unplanned Rhythms, tells the fuller story. It traces our journey from the early years of uncertainty and grief to watching my son discover his voice through music, while also exploring the continuing, beautifully unpredictable experience of raising two autistic teenagers as they move toward adulthood.

I write because I believe stories can change the way we see one another. They can replace isolation with connection, misunderstanding with empathy, and silence with conversation.

Most of all, I write because somewhere there is a parent carrying many of the things I once carried quietly, bravely, and sometimes alone.

I want that parent to know there is someone else on the road.

Francene Noel is a Jamaican born writer, autism advocate, and mother of two autistic teenagers. A former lawyer, she has spent more than a decade navigating autism diagnoses, therapies, educational systems, and the realities of raising neurodivergent children across Jamaica, New Brunswick, Barbados, Nova Scotia, and Ontario, Canada, where she now lives with her family.

Grounded in her faith and shaped by her family's journey, Francene is the voice behind @diaryofadrummerboysmom, an online community where she shares an honest and deeply personal perspective on autism, motherhood, acceptance, and advocacy. Her work creates space for parents and families, particularly those whose experiences are too often overlooked, to find connection, solidarity, and hope.

Offbeat: A Story of Autism, Acceptance, and Unplanned Rhythms is her first memoir.