05/18/2026
Today Jessica Langenhoff was laid to rest. Jessica was Chromodiversity’s Ambassador in the Netherlands.
She would have winced at a post like this: she spent her life refusing the spotlight, doing the work quietly, in the background, the way she preferred.
But the truth is that she held an enormous amount for our communities, and she should be named for it.
She was the person families found when their children were newly diagnosed with an X or Y chromosome variation and frightened. She was the steady voice on the other end of a message at any hour. She was the honest, insightful critic of everything we built.
She built bridges between the Dutch and international
X&Y communities - Turner (X0), Trisomy X (###), Klinefelter (XXY), XYY and beyond. And she did it without ever asking for credit.
I met her at a conference in Leiden three and a half years ago. We recorded a podcast together not long after.
Listening back to it now, what comes through is exactly what came through in person: warmth, intelligence, mischief, and a fierce, unsentimental commitment to the people she served.
We became close friends and her contribution to Chromodiversity cannot be overstated.
She leaves a son she adored, Jan, and a community that is quieter and smaller without her.
Dag, lieve Jessica. Dank je wel. 🌻
(Podcast: https://Inkd.in/euNDJPVz)
- Elliot
