Eliza Murphy

Eliza Murphy

As a Digital Editor of Love What Matters, I'm here to pull on your heartstrings and make you smile. After spending nearly six years as a Digital Reporter for ABC News' "Good Morning America," I'm thrilled to continue sharing touching and inspiring stories that the world is so craving. We can all use more love in our lives -- now you've found the perfect place to get it.

‘My wife knew I was gay since I was 16. ‘You need to come out of the closet.’: Gay man now living his truth after 10-year-long marriage to woman

“I realized I was gay early on. My parents didn’t know what to do. Lolly thought I should marry a prudish Mormon girl who didn’t want sex. I thought it might be better to marry someone like her – an open, communicative girl who DID want sex. For years, she deflected the possibility of BEING the girl I married, but when I dated one of her best friends in college, and she saw me playing the part of a ‘straight boyfriend,’ she began to see me in a different light. She began to fall in love with me.”

‘I was an ‘accident.’ My birth mom ‘tried to get rid of me,’ but couldn’t. She didn’t even want to name me.’: Orphan named by stranger in hospital room finally adopted at 26, ‘I longed to belong’

“To this day, I’m still not sure which random stranger named me in that hospital room. I was sent to a hospital for a full screening. They documented all the marks on my body with hours of questioning. I trembled in fear. In a dark hallway, a nurse – who took her job because her husband was also a survivor of child abuse – spoke these words to me. I can still hear her strong yet gentle voice. ‘Annie, the cycle ends with you.’ I finally know now, my parents aren’t going anywhere.”

‘We turned off the lights in the classroom, closed the blinds, and laid quietly in the corner. I was so scared.’: 9-year-old recounts ‘chaotic scene’ hiding in classroom after Saugus High School shooting in Santa Clarita

“‘This is not a drill!,’ their teachers yelled. My daughter answered the phone. Her voice shook as she described a chaotic scene. ‘We were outside lining up. I saw my teacher running toward us in high heels. Then she yelled at us to run to our classrooms.’ She is just 9 years old. She and her friend grabbed hands, darted into the nearest classroom, and peaked through a crack in the blinds.”

‘You better stop, or we’ll haul you off to the loony bin with the REAL crazy people.’ My father was in a drunken rage.’: Woman overcomes eating disorder from childhood trauma, ‘I’ve found strength to set that baggage down’

“Conditions at home reached a fever pitch. My father was laid off again, my grandmother moved in with her hoard, and I became sick. I tried my hardest to suppress that cough, barricaded with my little brother in my room, holding him back as the sounds of my father’s drunken rage filtered from the kitchen. My grandmother turned cold, hateful. ‘You’re old now. You aren’t cute and you have a bad attitude.’ The chaos was too much to bear. So I stopped eating.”

‘It is ok darling girl, mummy and daddy love you.’ She took her last breaths in our arms.’: 10-month-old baby girl dies from incurable brain condition Miller Dieker Syndrome, ‘She had a life well lived’

“My husband said, ‘We want our baby to feel the sun on her cheeks, the wind in her hair, the love all around her.’ And she really did. Lily’s smiles are the best thing I will ever see in my lifetime. I know that. We cuddled her until she was gone. I was sobbing, crying out, ’my baby, my baby!’ We bathed her and spent one last night together. She looked so peaceful, like she was sleeping.”

‘I jumped in as fast as lightning, pulling Levi up out of the water with a pale face and blue lips. ‘This can’t be happening!’: 3-year-old boy drowns while celebrating at grandparents’ lake house

“I yelled as loudly as I could, ‘HELP!!!’ Once the ambulance arrived, we had to answer questions. Still, to this day, I can’t hardly answer any of them. We were right beside him, and we never heard a sound. Never heard a splash. He wasn’t even near the water.”

‘I have breast cancer.’ I said on the operating table. The nurse wiped my tears. ‘I know. And we have you.’: Mom diagnosed with breast cancer 6 hours before giving birth to first child, ‘This baby saved my life’

“I sat in my 38-week OB appointment. I’d been told the lump in my breast was fibrous, and we’d watch it. But I knew differently. I felt it in my bones. I asked her to feel the lump. Her face said everything. My doctor called and said, ‘kiddo.’ I heard cancer, and my eyes became gushers. My husband held me. ‘Just cry. Just cry.’ Hours later, I was giving birth to my daughter. She saved my life.”

‘I have to tell you something. I’m so sorry.’ I burst into tears. I hated others being sad about our baby.’: Parents shocked by Down syndrome diagnosis after signing paperwork to not do genetic testing, ‘We are keeping the baby’

“This embryo was a fighter from the beginning – it took. Then I got a life changing phone call. ‘Your baby has Down syndrome,’ the nurse informed me. WHAT? We signed paperwork saying we DIDN’T want any blood tests. The nurse, in an effort to ‘bond’ with me, told me how she got pregnant naturally with twins. One of the twins died, and the other twin had Down syndrome, so she terminated. ‘We would have taken that baby,’ my husband replied.”

‘Are you going to give your adopted son back, since you’re going to have your own child?’ Ummm nope.’: Mom declares ‘adoption is not what impregnated me,’ enraged strangers would assume he’s ‘not wanted’

“Her words were confident as she loaded the belt with groceries, one by one, BEAMING. I smiled. ‘Oh! That’s not how it works. My bio son isn’t some weird reward for adopting.’ A lady actually argued with me. She told me pregnancy and biological babies are always the goal, ‘congrats for me.’ He was always our plan.”

 Share  Tweet