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.
‘Nana is in the hospital.’ She had a tear in her heart and only had three more days to live. It was unreal.’: Woman raised by grandma says ‘it is truly a miracle she is still here with us’
“I got a phone call from my mom. ‘Nana is in the hospital.’ I needed to spend her last few days by her side, just like she spent my whole life by mine. She didn’t know how little time she had left, and we wanted to keep it that way. I boarded a plane right away to go home.”
‘I thought I was dying. The pain was so bad, all I did was writhe and vomit for 8 hours. After it was over, I felt an incredible emptiness.’: Woman claims lemonade cliché is true, ‘All this tragedy happened for a reason’
“Our loss had to be so bad that it was newsworthy. Without it, Mac wouldn’t be here with us. If I didn’t believe it before, I now most certainly knew that every damn thing that happened TO ME over the last 40 years of my life actually happened FOR ME.”
‘My girl fought when I tried to give her some medicine to help with her cough. So much so that she peed on my bed and me.’: Mom says ‘I cried about everything, and, that is okay; it’s allowed’
“I stepped in dog poop. I cried tonight because I felt spent. I watched a video on how, in Spain, they don’t have enough ventilators, and so no one over the age of 65 is getting them, only the young. And then I cried a little more because I felt guilty for feeling spent.”
‘It is Day 14 of quarantine in my house with my two children. I don’t know what to do with myself right now. I feel overwhelmed and antsy.’: Woman says during quarantine ‘One breath. One step. One hour at a time. We will carry on.’
“One breath. One step. One hour at a time. We will carry on, in whatever manner we can. Not because we are in control or because we know things, but because we choose to show up and love every piece of ourselves. Steady on, my friends. We are in this together.”
‘I still wanted to be the nurse who helped. 365 days ago, you died. I still wake up in the night crying for you.’: Woman who lost partner to overdoes says ‘though your death broke me, I think your death rebuilt me
“You texted me at 10:34 p.m., and I responded two minutes later…but you never responded back because it was too late. Your death wrecked me but your life and love and death made me the nurse (and person) I am today.”
‘Something hard cracked over the back of my head. I could feel his fingers on my neck, checking for a pulse to see if he’d just committed murder.’: After surviving domestic abuse woman says ‘don’t stand by in silence’
“I woke up that morning and I just felt this bad feeling. I felt a searing pain. I remember dropping to my knees, the cat taking off, and my bag going flying. As darkness was taking over, I felt my body being flipped around. The last thing I saw before everything went black were C’s eyes looking down at me. It was my own personal horror story.”
‘I found an older couple on the street, walking and holding hands. ‘Is this how it is all going to end?’ I worried how hard it must be to be over 65 in this crazy time.’: Woman says ‘we’ve been given the gift of time with our loved ones’
“Running through the streets in the midst of the coronavirus felt like time had turned back 25 years. I ran by a group of neighbors standing a few feet apart, talking and laughing like they had all the time in the world. I passed by a man spraying his bushes, a woman jumping rope in her garage. Everything had slowed down.”
‘I know this is a wildly unpopular opinion, but get dressed. It actually helps.’: Mom says during pandemic ‘I have nothing to prove, but everything to save’
“We’ve all seen the jokes about day pajamas and night pajamas. Or the ones asking those of quarantining in jeans, what exactly do we have to prove. I have nothing to prove, but everything to save.”
‘He forgets appointments. He never knows the party dates and doesn’t feed him as I would. But our son lights up because daddy is ALWAYS there.’: Divorced couple learns to co-parent ‘to the level our son DESERVES’
“We were oil and vinegar 75% of the day, every single day, for the vast majority of our 14 years together. Many would say, ‘None of that is your problem. You shouldn’t have to work around that.’ He still often needs to be handled with grace, even if I don’t feel like he deserves it.”
‘My ex sat me down on the couch and said, ‘I will never be able to love you for the way you look.’ He stood up and left, forever.’: Woman describes her journey to ‘love myself fully again’
“That day broke me. Not because my boyfriend left, not because of the things he said. But because in one moment, I lost the dearest, most precious thing any of us have – I lost myself. I moved cities, countries, and even continents. It’s been 3 months and 3 years since he took my love away.”