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.
“‘Dear Natalie, I have followed you for years. I adore your boys. I love seeing your beautiful face when it is joyful. But I owe it to you to let you know, I cannot follow you anymore. You seem to be hellbent on being negative when you so clearly have so much to be happy about. I cannot have all of your constant negativity in my feed anymore.’ I was at the gym when I listened to the full 3-minute message left in my Instagram Direct Messages, from a woman I only knew through her comments.”
“I saw all the cop cars pull up. I ran out the door and asked them, ‘Was it her?’ ‘I’m so sorry, Carrie. She was hit and killed instantly.’ My whole world was changed by those words. ‘Nanny! Nanny! Please God no!’ The cops grabbed me because I was falling to the ground. My poor baby, to know you were hit so hard and you were all torn up, all your broken bones. Mom is so sorry. I should have protected you. That was my job.”
“After watching her scream and flail on the ground, I had enough. ‘Go to your room! You need to calm down,’ I told her. But instead, she continued to talk back. And that’s when it happened. I yelled at my child. My daughter went upstairs and slammed the door. I heard her yell and cry in frustration. I sunk down onto a chair and cried.”
“As we walked toward the doctor’s office, the fear made my body cold. I would feel my anxiety bubbling up, making it harder to breathe. I wanted to pull away from my mom. Stop getting closer. I became aware infants and children are still treated without any pain control. ‘They just swaddle them and do the treatment really fast,’ I was told. Babies? How could anyone do this? ‘It doesn’t really hurt.’ Reading this made me want to vomit. The memories of the pain and being held down is so visceral for me.”
“The only time I was high enough was if I was close to an overdose. He shoved the gun into my temple and screamed at my using buddy to give him the money. To be honest, at that moment, I wish he would have pulled the trigger. My arm was swollen four times its normal size the next morning. One person held me while the other drained my arm. I was just going to do a little bit and then go pick my daughters up from daycare.”
“I wanted to cry and vomit at the same time. Here I am, a 33-year-old woman, terrified to tell my mom I am dating. I mean, c’mon?! ‘I may have met someone.’ She looked at me surprised and asked, ‘How? And when?’ I told her I’d signed up for dating apps and that my friends had been keeping tabs on me. To top it off, I live in my parent’s house and those feelings of that 16-year-old girl came back. Keeping secrets, sneaking out to see boys, saying, I’m ‘going to see friends.’”
“It seems like I’m just a cool dad having fun while his wife is at work. But that’s not the case. We looked like a happy couple. You’d never know I was sleeping in my children’s playroom on a futon. I remember my mentor being honest with me, ‘You are an African American male in Texas, serving in the military. It’s highly unlikely you’ll get primary custody of your kids.’ I joined the 15 percent of single dads around the world that have primary custody of their kids. Now, I’m a full-time father of the 3 most resilient kids I know.”
“Ben was the type of guy who had a specific place for his shoes, wallet, and keys. When I came home from a 12-hour shift in the ER, my husband didn’t greet me like normal. I found his shoes randomly strewn across the kitchen, his clothes heaped in a pile. He was lying atop all the covers on our bed. ‘Are you okay?’ No response. ‘Babe? Did you spill some water in the bathroom?’ He became enraged. I called my mom and began to pack an overnight bag. My mom had been on the phone with me and was hearing all of it. She hung up and called the police.”
“The most horrifying part is he had to remain calm in the last moments of his daughter’s life as his own fears were flashing. That’s the part that keeps coming back to my mind. I can’t imagine the selflessness those parents were exhibiting in those last moments. And, while it is reassuring that he was there to hold his daughter, to whom he was a hero, it is still so unsettling to imagine being with your child for their last breath.”
“But, for some, it wasn’t, and it won’t be for a while. And for those, I pray. After my dad passed, everything was a struggle. I’d get dressed and wonder why. I’d go to put my makeup on and feel like a self-obsessed idiot. What was the point of wearing mascara? How could I care how I look at a time like this? I was a fragile shell of the girl I was just days before. You can do better.”
