LJ Herman is a former editor at Love What Matters and lives in Colorado. LJ is a concert, ticket and technology enthusiast. He has seen the Dave Mathews Band over one hundred times and counting.
‘Yeah right, that’s not a real service dog.’: Mom suffering from PTSD confronts ‘rude person’ who judged her ‘without even knowing me’
“Don’t I look fine? My hair is perfectly curled, my makeup is flawless, and I’m cute as a button in my favorite Disney attire. You wouldn’t think anything could be wrong with me. But not all disabilities are visible. I have PTSD from watching my 6-year-old son die right before my eyes in a car accident on our way to Disney World for his 7th birthday.”
‘My daughter dressed herself. Tall polka-dotted socks, bike shorts and a glittery snowman long-sleeved shirt. It’s 85 degrees.’: Insecure mom tells daughter she looks ‘awesome’ despite being disappointed in herself
“I was proud of her, but disappointed in myself. I took her to preschool drop-off in her trendy threads, but I packed a change of clothes for afterwards because we have a PTO meeting at our son’s private school this evening.”
‘We lost our precious Amie. We knew surgery was coming. She was in the best hands. Try as he might, we lost her.’: Mom’s emotional journey to adopting their ‘fierce, spunky’ daughter, only to lose her 2 months ago
“Then that fateful phone call. Oh, how that phone call would change our lives. We were contemplating what empty nesting would look like. And then Amie happened. She had a way of wrapping everyone around her little finger. Quickly, we realized Amie wasn’t like our other babies. She already had two open heart surgeries, and there were more in the future. Amie was feisty, and had a personality as big as the sky.”
‘I was scared of losing my mom. I was 12. I didn’t want anyone to think I was trying to get attention.’: Daughter suffers in silence after mom’s cancer, Alzheimer’s diagnoses, says ‘your struggle doesn’t make you weak’
“I heard her whispering on the phone. It sounded like something was going on, but she was trying to hide it. I was completely caught off guard. She had found a lump in her breast. I immediately asked her if she was going to die. I never told anyone about any of it.”
‘My mom still waves goodbye to me. She stands out on her driveway and waves.’: Daughter ‘thinks of her mom’ when grieving how fast her own child are growing up
“She still cares about me like she did when I was a kid. She can’t help herself. As I’ve gotten older, my mom still does the same motherly things she’s always done, now for me and my babies. I love how precious she is to me.”
‘You’ve been burned. You’ve been talked bad about. You’ve been left out.’: Woman insists this is ‘your life,’ so ‘don’t wait’ for someone to include you
“You’ve felt like because one group didn’t want you, something must be terribly screwed up with you. But it’s not true. That ain’t nothing but dirty, nasty lies. I believed them for a long time myself.”
‘I don’t know who you are, but I know I love you.’ The mother of my son has no clue who I am.’: Father realizes he’d be raising his son ‘alone’ after wife suffers strokes that erased her memory
“When I first met my wife, it was love at first sight. Looking back on that night brings back great memories, but for my wife, those memories are gone. A quick trip to the hospital turned into an absolute nightmare. We found out she had preeclampsia, but by then, it was too late. ‘Steve, this is not easy to say, but she suffered a severe brain injury. She has lost all her memories, long and short,’ the doctor told me.”
‘I was too scared to touch my own son. You gave us hope when we had none.’: NICU mom pens ‘ long overdue’ thank you letter to nurses who helped son survive
“It’s been 7 years, so this ‘thank you’ has been a long-time coming. I wasn’t trying to be rude. I was just scared.”
‘I escaped the house from the second story window. I called off the wedding.’: Woman celebrates ‘triumph’ of escaping abusive partner by rocking dress on would-be wedding day
“He told me to cut my two closest friends out of my life. It felt amazing to wear my beautiful engagement ring, but I was crumbling on the inside. The life I so desperately wanted to live was never going to exist. It took 4 years to realize it.”
‘I used to work with a woman who hated me. HATED ME. She turned around in frustration: she did not like me. Not one bit.’: Woman realizes ‘life’s too short’ to waste time on mean people, learns it’s best to ‘let them go’
“Did I mention how she was kind of mean even when we were friends and I was always a little unsure if I could trust her, and some part of me was always concerned that maybe I should have run away as fast as I could in the opposite direction before she stabbed me while I was looking away? When it’s time to, you let them go.”